Then I would change the lease to say that the utility is "payable BEFORE rent", so that the law will see that when they made a payment the utility bill was paid FIRST and that what is unpaid is a portion of the rent.

There is a portion for the buyer and a portion of the lender (I've always assumed its since the lender has a interest in a portion of the equity). 

Ensure that the cash flow is positive and meets your investment goals.Consider House Hacking: Since you're interested in real estate investing for financial freedom, consider house hacking your current property by renting out a portion of it while you continue to live in it.

If you are only planning on clearing 10,000 or 20,000 on a deal a large portion of that profit can be eaten up by unforeseen expenses.

I have complete confidence in their ability to pay their share of rent but my concern is with the City's portion as I have heard first-hand accounts and bad cases where the City has delayed payments, delayed processing of renewal for voucher holder (and thus payments) and lack of communication.Are there folks here who have had a good experience with CityFHEPS and the City's ability to pay on time? 

Can they pay a portion upfront and the rest before move-in?

We used Kiavi to fund a large portion of the deal.

I would use an accounting (I use quicken) software to then manually label those expenses as related to your portion of the property or the "rental" portion.

Though the down payment and closing costs will not be huge, they will eat up a sizable portion of our savings.

Some are saying that by adding me to the trust, we will have to pay the transfer tax (for my portion only) because I am not on title.