You'll notice that he's got that broken down by room, piling the pain on.But it isn't a matter of finding out where you're being overcharged here.

I've found that good people generally undercharge for their time when they're responsible for billing because they don't want you to think they're overcharging.

My point here is that 'forced equity' (equity you create by rehabbing a prop that needs work, thereby increasing its market value by more than you spent on the rehab) isn't actually money in your pocket until you sell, and markets can be fickle, contractors can overcharge, surprise issues come up, bad PMs can ruin your investment real quick.

Herein lies the problem in Asheville specifically- so many people are flipping and subdividing that the contractors are super busy, tend to overcharge and often don't show up at all.

If so, that would help to avoid PM nightmares regarding over-charging for maintenance, etc.

Hidden fees and overcharged rehab costs.2) What checks and balances should I have in place to prevent unscrupulous managers from taking advantage of me (I am located in Southern California and I have a full-time job as an investment banker).

Service workers happily overcharge folks that like to flaunt their fancy stuff.  

All I can figure, is that they pay a reputation scrubbing service.My daughter ended up firing them and they tried to tell her she owed them a termination fee and she said, well we can either let that go and call it square, or I can sue you for all of the overcharging.  

Some will not raise the rents of good tenants preferring to supplement their rent in the belief keeping them is preferred over charging full market rent with the risk they will move.

Even if it costs a couple thousand dollars (10 months of the fee or less than a couple months of rent for this unit) to remeter the unit I would think it would be well worth it to make the unit more marketable to the tenants the poster wishes to attract and avoiding overcharging the tenants for utilities which would be violating the laws.