I'm looking for information/tutorial on how to place actors based on how far along the player is in other quests. For example the bandits that take over helgen don't show up until after the beginning sequence.

So how can I make my actor visible in helgen say only after the beginning quest reaches a certain stage?

I'm not sure exactly what this would be called and that's probably why i'm having a hard time searching for info.

If you could point me in the right direction that'd be great!

Best way would probably be to use the story manager. Easiest way would be to find something else in helgen that enables when you finish the intro quest, and set that other object as your actor's enable parent.