The Search: My criteria was very simple, East Portland / Gresham, 3 bedroom house with a basement that had a separate entry which I could turn into a rental, at a price I could afford.

If you can't comfortably afford to make the payment yourself, I wouldn't rent to them.I don't want to seem cold or callous because if my parents were alive I would do anything for them.

Flipping houses and owning a painting business can actually complement each other very well, in terms of cross-selling services, developing connections, and new opportunities among other things.I guess my point is, before leaving an existing venture, make sure you have formally done your diligence via a business model, business plan, marketing strategy, etc.  

This is a good place to start as they have the more experienced staff there and you don't have to have such a defined idea of what you want.They will look up these tools amongst other things (these tools are awesome btw):http://zimas.lacity.org/http://navigatela.lacity.org/navigatela/There you'll get a load of information from zoning to issues related to the property to details of the property to services in the area, whether it's a landslide zone, hydrants, sewer, RSO, Ellis Act and much more.

Once you become advanced you can reach out to services like Podio, but this seems to be a good starting area!

Has anyone used a third party billing service to bill tenants in a building that is sub metered?  

If he cannot afford to do it, I would certainly find out why.

You might be able to do this as an annual subscription to an information service versus getting involved in transactions. 

Since they have an oral agreement and the agreement has been executed by service rendered from painting the properties.

Hi, I'm trying to decide on an online service for credit/background checks for some upcoming rentals.