I have a house in Phila. PA. I am looking to rent it.I have never rented it ,therefor I need to know what I must do legally.Where do I start. I want to do everything by the book to protect myself against problems. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

Start by reading the landlord / tenant laws of your state. There's a link to each state's laws in a sticky at the top of this forum. Read through those and see if you can live with those requrements.

The next thing is getting a solid lease. Personally, I use the TAA (Texas Apartment Association) lease. It's been prepared by the Apartment Association's attorneys and gives me every protection afforded by the law. But if I just had one rental house it would be a little cost prohibitive to join the association. I would NOT just use a generic lease from the office supply store or something. Search around on the computer for landlord associations, apartment association, etc. Also there are a lot of good books (state specific) about landlording.

You need to understand how to screen tenants and how to get rid of them if necessary. If they're not paying or grossly violating your lease.

You're 100% correct to do your homework before you jump in! Good job!