HELP! Utilities not separated in this apartment building

[Jennifer T.]

Hi all,

I'm working on a deal to buy a 17-unit apartment building.

However, nothing is separated by the unit and currently the landlord pays everything. As a result, utilities eat up about 30% of gross rental income each year (and will probably go up a lot more this year). This makes the current deal very unattractive, but I think there is an opportunity here to greatly decrease expenses.

I'm looking for ideas on how to separate utilities so each unit can pay for their own utilities.

Water is charged a flat fee by the city (weird I know) so that can be just divided equally between units.

Heating of the water (gas) - all comes out of the same water tanks, how difficult would it be to separate them by the unit?

Electricity & heating - baseboard heating. How can I split this up? Has anyone done submetering before?

I will be renovating each unit so there will be work done on all units.

Is there an opportunity here? Please share your thoughts and thank you very much!