I own real estate investments and I own other asset classes like stock, crypto, etc. and there are pros and cons to all of them.I will say there is nothing wrong with selling your property and utilizing the cash elsewhere.

Estimate utilities and figure out who pays them (separate meters, landlord paid, etc)5.

My wife not comfortable putting our house as equity, therefore we are utilizing other options to fund investment properties. 

It's a primarily a utility asset, and secondarily a store of value against currency. 

If you see utilities increasing, is there a way that you can push this on to the tenant?

The income includes things like late fees, a rented garage, and utilities that are billed back to the tenant. 

Utilities paid by me or lawn mowing and snow, realtor commission for renting, legal expenses etc.  

Usually MTR comes fully furnished with utilities included, so you pay for the convenience.if the area has traveling nurses, other professionals that come for a few months for work they normally pay more, in certain cases the employer pays the rent not familiar with that particular market,  but worth looking into it.

Utilize your resources on here and I'm sure you can come to a happy conclusion on wheather to self manage or hire a PM company.  

The reality is that the Gross S8 Rent amount on an S8 voucher includes all utilities.