Rule Number 1 for me is to first establish source control and asset chain.
Rule number 2 get it in UE4 based on functionality, in it just works, and then build up the bling through source control.
For example the perfect door will start out as a box primitive and in the storage folder I’ll have a source folder, for the Max source scene, and a FBX folder for the UE4 as part of the asset chain that is imported into UE4.
So the flow would be to modify and save the Max source and export to the FBX asset chain and the in UE4 do a re-import
Also not so much a rule a a MUST do is to establish you scaling right from the start. It’s not a fun time if you mess up the scale on a primary asset that requires redoing all of the scale work.