If you want to offer a "rebate" of some kind after they stay up to date for certain amount of time, I'm more inclined to go that way, but in general theres no real good reason to put yourself as the owner in the middle of the utilities unless they aren't metered in a way to bill directly.  

Hey Samantha, welcome to the Forums. 

Even if the owner responds, it's often all negative as they somehow expect their property to never need repairs.There has to be a good balance of communication & expectations for the relationship to work.

Set aside a big pile of cash or rely on a line of credit you won't be using.The oversimplified insurance concept is to pay a small premium to cover a large loss.

Few things to lock down:•They need to be full service with a legit staff—techs on payroll, leasing agents, someone handling PR when tenants get weird.

You don't want to be over leveraged.) 

Padsplit is a new one too that people use to rent rooms

I am doing it and getting 2 to 3 good leads each day. 

@Brett K. we manage in Class C areas, so have to deal with this a lot.Options:1) Boardup - pretty useless as easy to rip the off and advertises the property as vacant.2) Armor Guard door frame reinforcement with temp double-key deadbolts.

At the end of the day; you need more money to do something like this.MAX LTV on new builds is 80% LTC, Meaning if the build is $550,000 and Land is XAdd ($550,000 + x ) * .8 = LOAN AMOUNTYou would need to come in with MINIMUM 20% of the cost in addition to closing costs and reserves, $80,000 is not going to cut it for this project.