And by the way, that $100 / month didn't cover the backed-up sewer drain, the toy that was thrown in the toilet that you had to argue for 45 minutes why the tenant had to pay for that and eventually just ate the bill, the broken storm door that the "wind" ripped off the house... 

I have a little experience with flipping properties in the past but one bad investment decisions ate through any previous profits.

Experienced investors will have ate that all day long, and accepted a smaller margin in this market. 

I'm not saying I know the lifespan of all of these bigger item expenses to a tee or that I can forecast everything that will happen (I am just a little newbie), but my idea behind the way I am budgeting for these bigger expenses is that they should be mostly covered in the long term, given their life expectancies.

They will be more expensive then conventional but some hard money lenders offer buy and hold loans that ate longer term at more affordable rates then the typical short term flip loan.

By contrast, don't call me if you're fee sensitive for loan amounts below $100k, I'd be paying to do the loan if I ate the fees.

My thoughts--it's tough enough dealing with tenants; when you have to deal with housemates, you become a landlord, a mediator, and a detective.Why not just let the original renter (the one in the master bedroom) sign the lease for $1,200 and let HIM get a house mate and let THEM deal with the issues of "who ate my yogurt?" 

Spend a day looking ate their respective deeds, subdivision plats, and tax assessor maps and you'll get the hang of it.

The is no need for phrases like if a then b except for c unless you make more then x, have less then 3 dependents and ate red meat on Thursday.

if the plumbing to the units are separate, why wouldnt you just have the water utility install a separate meter, I have done this, the downside is each meter has a base charge, but the tenant pays the utility anyway, or my property manager does and bills it back to the tenant. all the lumber needs to do is locate the piping to each unit, install a Tee where the water comes in and install 2 sets of meter horns, and then needed lines to each units supply, I installed a set up like this a couple months ago on a duplex, took me about an hour and $100 in parts.