The solution is to location the meters as close to the billed unit as possible (or even inside) but sometimes that's not convenient because the return and supply lines are on opposite sides of the building whereas you could easily put the meter right next to your boiler / zone valves where all of the pipes are easily accessible.As for cost per BTU, with oil, you keep a rolling average of the price per gallon in your tanks and divide the BTU's used by 138,500 (BTUs contained in a gallon of heating fuel).

It’s true that you should be more diligent with vetting tenants - cash flow is great, but a destructive tenant can burn through it pretty easily and put you in the red.

This is easily enough obtained through online services if you don't know someone in Ohio willing to do this for you. 

With regard to your "DST" and as with many highly structured tax vehicles that have a potential "self dealing" quality to them, there are a number of potential potholes you can easily step in along the way (e.g., constructive receipt doctrine, effective control over nominal 3rd party relationships, lack of genuine risk bearing and compliance with transactional terms, etc.).

For a list that small you may get lucky and no one will notice but in general you can easily run into frequent litigators that are just waiting to get called and file suit.

Ultimately I had a vision for how this particular home could easily be improved and rented for top market without much headache.How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Home buyers are very easily visually influenced.

Additionally, a sewer line repair usually results in vacancy and lost rent--even more lost money.A new driveway can easily cost $5k on the low end, and plenty of properties in my area have $15-$25k+ driveways. 

He's already lost $80,000 in potential income and they could easily tie him up for double that in a heavily regulated market like California.Successful landlords charge market rent or close to it.

All options calls are on Tesla rocketing past $260 price which I see happening easily in the next 2 weeks.