Within six months, he had a steady rental income, and two years later, he leveraged the equity to buy a fourplex.

I rented a 4-bed house in Royal Oak, then got 3 roommates that I charged each 30% of the rent, so they covered most of my  rent.You can do the same if you buy a house:1) More rooms the better, if renting to fellow college students.2) Can YOU live in the basement?

What I do for my units with shared meters is I charge 50% flat to each tenant which prevents waste I get no issues with any waste due to this but the ones that share electric bills do get many complaints due to the size of the bill.

The way that things like this are typically handled is that if a lawsuit were to happen, since both people have been behaving under the assumption of a lease (the landlord renting their space and the tenant paying rent), they would probably treat it as if there was a standard month to month lease agreement.  

Mike, My recommendation would be during due diligence for a potential purchase, ask for past 12 months of all utility bills, property taxes, and any other municipal requirements like rental permits, occupancy inspections etc. 

In the end my buddy and I nearly broke even after we included the monthly payments that we collected.

They charge 15% reservation fee for a complete management or $150 monthly if you do place bookings and they do coordinate maintenance, inventory, cleanings, front desk, admin stuff, and etc. 

Compare comps of recently sold homes in the last 6 months ( In this case, where do you find sale information?

Depeding on the amount get a credit card that has no interest for 12-18 months. 

Red Stick REI is a great meetup in BR if you're not already attending it - it's on the first Tuesday of each month.