This is time-consuming and most likely will end up with complaints.My suggestion is to talk to the utility company to get an average.

, everyone knows about them and they are very time consuming with no clear date or if you are ever going to get any kind of a deed to the property.

As a PM I will tell you that Zillow, et all, has made the job of the leasing agent very time consuming.  

They are 95% legal in Texas...if you can comply.A pure option OR a pure lease is fair game, regardless of who is getting the benefit.If you are *getting* the LO (and not a consumer), game on. 

lol  Particularly is they have no idea how the business model works and the benefits experienced by consumers. 

Receiving rent, paying a vendor, paying the owner...it all required duplicate steps and was very time-consuming.

It's much less time consuming for you, and it also generates a sense of urgency among potential renters when they see others who are interested, too. 

An excellent book on due diligence: Brian Hennessey - The Due Diligence Handbook For Commercial Real Estate: A Proven System To Save Time, Money, Headaches And Create Value When Buying Commercial Real EstateIt's reasonably in-depth but a lot of this stuff one learns from experience.

The answer you will get is that they are expensive and time consuming. 

I would assume it would be too time consuming to try to assess more specifically the operating expenses of each particular house?