Since your friend covers utilities, this offsets some of your cost.

No, there simply utilizing it, adoption, as is all there competitors, so it's not any business innovation except the ai creators, it's industry adoption to a evolved S.O.P.. 

You find the house completely trashed with missing appliances and cabinets, tenants were cooking meth, windows broken, etc. 6-8 months of unpaid rent, unpaid utilities, thousands to empty the abandoned property and trash, $50,000 to completely renovate the property and make it rentable again, plus all the time, energy, and stress along the way.I would actually argue this is pretty common and not even the worst-case scenario. 

However, if you want to flip you may be able to make irregular chunks of income quicker that can make up the difference.Which leads me to the utilization of your equity.

So as long as your insurance, property taxes, property management, utilities maintenance, repairs, vacancy, and capex come to $4/mo or less you’ll be fine.

The property cash flows at a 15% ROI…………………..before insurance, debt service, utilities, management, vacancies, repairs, maintenance, payroll and property taxes7.

.: Quote from @Mark Cruse: Not sure why suggesting a person utilize an off-market strategy is bad.

Now for my out-of-pocket expenses:Down payment: $7500 (Hard money loan 90% purchase price 100% rehab)Closing costs: $6500Inspection: $400Agent's commission: $5200 (didn't raise purchase price of house with seller concessions, so that money didn't apply to the commission sadly. won't make this mistake again)Holding costs: $1300 (one interest-only payment of $770, roughly $200 in utilities and $360 in insurance)Total: roughly 21 grand. 

More specific: He stole months of rent and utility payments from a tenant (and threatened to evict her!)

From time to time I will hear of people who utilize it well and gain business from it.