My belief is good tenants will pay full market rent if they are happy tenants and will leave regardless of the rent if they are unhappy tenants.Generally corporate landlords will maintain their properties at market and increase the rents annually by a minimum of the annual cost of living index.

it would take you over 7.8 years to recoup the money ($800 a month x 12 months x 7.8 years = $75K.)So, you could spend the $75K now, and have no money in 8 years (of course you would be living for free) or you could invest the money (stocks, index mutual funds, etc...) and you might have $120-$150K, in that same time frame. 

If they feel like they are your serfs, they won't be happy campers.That said, if the only thing that mattered in your agreement with a tenant was that they paid on time, you could write your contract on an index card. 

TX law lets you put utility charges in the lease, from what I can see.http://texaspropertycode.org/chapter-92-texas-prop...If you click on the "to top" link, you will go back to the index of all of the laws.

But you can do a CL search yourself for your key words to see if your ads are indexed or not.

Also, I don't know enough about real estate investment to invest that money wisely or with confidence yet, and would need to stick the proceeds into an index fund until I felt educated enough to wade into the shark infested waters.

The fact that the Case Schiller index shows Chicago is still below its peak indicates that Chicago's house prices will likely still appreciate or have some room to grow.

Otherwise, if you aren't willing or able to put in the kind of work that is required, then buy a REIT or an S&P500 index fund and be done with it, your result will likely be better in that case.

I suggest that everyone on this thread go review the Case Schiller Index.

You'll often see what the listed rents were and how long it was before it was taken off the market.For LiquidityThere is an 'index' number that a real estate agent might give you that basically tells you how long a house is on the market before it's sold.