Should Rent Factor in Utilities?

[Noah Barba]

Hey guys, pretty basic question here: should I include utilities in the rent? Not only should I do it, but does the rent someone sees listed on Zillow, realtor, etc. include the utilities? 

When estimating a property I've learned to sum up all the monthly expenses in order to find if "market rent" for the area would leave enough cash flow in the deal. Since that is how I estimate a property, wouldn't I include the utilities in the listed rent? Thanks to anyone who can help me straighten this out in my head!

[Marc Winter]

I would never recommend you include paying a tenant's utilities.  If you are talking about an older multi-family with heat being one central unit, that's of course something else.  

When we were first starting out, I remember having a 3-fam building.  In our own home, a single fam, we would walk around in sweats during the winter and be comfortable doing so.  In the rental building, the tenants came to the door in t-shirts and shorts.  

If the temp was too high, they'd open a window, of course playing games to get the thermostat cranked up.  Why not?  After all, it was FREE to them!

That's when I decided to NEVER again pay for a tenant's utilities, especially their heat.

Good luck.