Then there are the challenges with Section 8 tenants paying utilities and taking care of their rental property.

You say things like "It was understood that I would continue to utilize the garage and one room for storage as I transitioned to living out of state."

Shared laundry meant a fifth utility meter and high water costs that I paid.

GRM and cap rate both looked great, but when we pulled utility records, we found heating costs in winter were brutal because of old, inefficient systems.

Or find a property that is under-utilized or has below market rents.Otherwise, you could also do the OPPOSITE of the great advice from @Jonathan Greene and buy a property with multi-bed units or live in the larger unit and rent out the smaller unit - while getting a roommate(s).

That's just the max they will pay for rent plus utilities.

If the didn't do that then they have converted to LTR or MTR rentals at a steady monthly income and have the tenants take over the utilities which offsets the loss of more income.

Make sure everyone knows a cleaning schedule, expectation for common areas, how are you splitting utilities, guest policy, etc. 

I have recently started utilizing this platform for just that and I've already had some great conversations with people here. 

(If there’s isn’t a checkbox for utilities on).