I also want to congratulate you on having enough vision to expand into RE at such an early stage of your career - it looks like you have a good head on your shoulders!

@Susan Gillespie make a good point, if one is head and shoulders above the other (and it is still 2%+ rent), the cherry pick.

This means that, in order to get to the settlement table, they agree to hire the home inspector, have the inspections completed within a reasonable amount of time, and shoulder the cost.Remember to leave yourself a sufficient time to pick an inspector and bring him out to view the property.

Try a hard money lender if traditional banks are giving you the cold shoulder.

STNL you have a long term lease in place and the tenants shoulder increasing costs and no matter if economy is going up,down, sideways you are getting XX percent each year increase.No asset class is perfect.

I don't think you have to be over his shoulder watching him pick out a screwdriver from his toolbox, following him out to his truck for supplies etc.  

A load off my shoulders :) Next stop: closing.

Will someone be looking over your shoulder the whole time, probably not but it can be discovered.

If so, I would move the utilities onto the tenant's shoulders as soon as possible.So how much down payment is this seller wanting for this property?

=============================================================================Side note:I want to apologize if I am coming off as being either snide or brash to anybody, but some of the responses I am seeing are equivalent to asking a hunter if he's certain he put the right end of the rifle to his shoulder.