I have a potential tenant who feels utilities should be included.

Tenants should always pay for their own utilities, whenever possible.

The 20% down with a conventional loan also gave you a great start with lower monthly payments, which helps when maximizing rental cash flow.Regarding the lesson you learned about letting the seller take advantage of small asks, it's a common challenge for newer investors.

The beauty of real estate is that you can spend as much or as little time on it as you want, it really just depends on the strategy you want to utilize and how active you want to be. 

-The water lines don't bother me because I know that is a utility room.This is also me being overly critical.

Investment Info:Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Orlando area.Currently under contract for a single family home that we will be utilizing as a short-term rental.

Hopefully your lease says something about utility bills being owed by the tenant - you should be able to make those "rents" by posting to the ledger.

The LTC/LTV is often very similar to the loans you likely utilized for flips but most lenders funding flip loans  don’t factor debt coverage ratio because the intent is to sell, not rent the home.

I utilized a Fannie Mae 5% loan to purchase the property.

A growing number of my clients have been utilizing this niche of protection.