Hey all - I'm new to the RE investing game and have some (probably dumb) questions regarding cash on cash returns. As some background, I'm looking for turnkey or close to it and would be using a management company sin...

Unfortunately there's a lot of alarmist/scare tactics utilized to upsell these services that do nothing but generate revenues for those who are selling the service and often leave the clients with recurring expenditures i.e  annual maintenance costs.  

Hi Gavin,This is fairly common, and it’s great that you’re thinking ahead about how to handle utilities responsibly.

Mike, My recommendation would be during due diligence for a potential purchase, ask for past 12 months of all utility bills, property taxes, and any other municipal requirements like rental permits, occupancy inspections etc. 

I have had nothing but problems utilizing their system. 

For example, in some cases even when the home is livable a seller might turn off utilities on a vacant house to save money.

I have a ton more to learn and am mostly just here to share your concerns, but after reading a lot of articles I'm shying away from expanding into this territory while he's in office. 

I was going to use this home as my primary residence and do the 203K loan to build a ton of equity How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

you will need to look at the APN of the property and line it up with what you actaully bought. as mentioned the tax assessed value is not an indicator of value. the land could be a utility easement, used for stormwater management etc.

I haven't spent a ton of money overall on improvements.