ABC kept the first two and half months of rent from the rental guarantee for tenant placement fees and utilities (water, electric).

Hi Brett, I would opt to utilize a HELOC. 

Many places only allow utilities in the owners name.

As mentioned elsewhere, breakeven on cash flow is not the same as break even for taxes.Let's make some assumptions:Rental income = $1000Mortgage payment = $400 - but $300 is interest and $100 is principalOther expenses (repairs, advertising, utilities, etc) = $600Depreciation = $250The above scenario creates a break even from a cash flow perspective, however the tax scenario looks like this:Rental income minus the mortgage interest (principal is not deductible) minus the other expenses minus depreciation looks like this:1000-300-600-250 = $150 LossIf your income is over $150,000, then you cannot deduct that loss, but you can roll it over to future years. 

It will show the rent amounts, who pays utilities and expenses they know annually.

We currently have 23 single-family homes in the KC metro (120 bedrooms) utilizing this model and while its never boring - I really enjoy it and it's definitely a favorite way to invest in real estate to date.Have a few tips and tricks we've learned - send me a message if you have any questions.

You will truly be raising the clock, as each day will cost you very significant money.  12% interest on $250k is $2500/mo, or about $80 per day in interest, not including your other carrying costs (utilities, property taxes, insurance, HOA). 

There are no utilities in place, no septic tank and no well. 

But usually for a tenant occupied it's like $90-120 per monthI've noticed a lot of multi-family buildings are pre-WWII housing inventory - are there restrictions or issues common with that (historic districts, crazy high utility costs, etc)?

Plus for its high cash flow potential, utilizing a 1031 exchange to reinvest gains effectively made this experiment a relatively low risk for me.