- should I hire an attorney to get paperwork/contracts in place. - advertising it (Zillow enough?)

Should the tenant be responsible for hiring a gas expert for the dryer install?

If you are looking to possibly get into the real estate rental world with this property, you are probably going to want to hire a CPA anyways to make sure you're filing taxes correctly.

Since this is a bigger project than we have done before we plan on hiring a contractor to do the major work; demo, framing, electrical, plumbing, and sheet rock.

Since this is a bigger project than we have done before we plan on hiring a contractor to do the major work; demo, framing, electrical, plumbing, and sheet rock.

I would strongly advise you to hire an attorney who speaks your native language.

If you do not want to do a syndication, are you planning on starting your own property management company, or just building properties outright and then hiring a 3rd party property management company? 

Once they made me hire an engineer because a support beam had chipped paint.  

I would hire management.

@Thomas J Mele I used Zen business to form my first LLC, however, I did hire an attorney to refine the operating agreement.