Would like help with my cash flow operating expense estimates

[David Majaess]

Hello Everyone,

I am trying to sharpen my skills at evaluating multi-unit rentals in the Canadian market and calculating cash flows. I have some questions mainly on accurately forecasting capital expense. My target area is multi-units in the Ottawa region, but I think any cold climate rural area in Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Regina, Calgary, etc) would have the similar cost parameters.

Question 1: Natural Gas
 Most multi-units I review have centralized hot water tanks and furnace to heat the entire building. Just from doing research it seems people on reddit and redflagdeals mention their winter gas bill is around $150 to $200. So I factored a yearly natural gas a cost estimation in the following table.  Is this a reasonable expenditure amount?

Gas Calculation
Per Month	Subtotal
$ 170.00	$ 510.00	← 3 month gas heating for winter cold season
$ 100.00	$ 300.00	←3 month gas heating for mid cold season
$ 20.00	$ 60.00	←3 month gas heating mild season
$ 15.00	$ 1,260.00	← cost for hot water consumption (showers, cooking) (Per Month *12 * number of units)
	$ 2,130.00	<-total gas cost per year

Question 2: 
For electricity, I want the unit to pay for it. But if I want to have electricity included in my rental income, how much should I account for electrical? Also how do you charge the units, yet power up the common areas?

Question 3
My repairs and maintenance is at 10% of gross monthly operating income. However, should I have additional expense items for pest control and yard/snow removal?  Currently I have added pest control as $900/year (three visits: spring, summer and fall).

I don't know if I need to budget for land/snow removal as I'm assume my 10% maintenance will cover it.

Finally, here is my total expense spreadsheet. In this example, it was a 7 unit building. Hopefully it makes sense.  If there are any comments or pointers, I appreciate the advice.

Thanks for the help,
Wayne