We paid ours off when our balance was $125k, but on a 15 so payments were fairly high at $1732 PI.

Taxes are calculated on the gain (e.g. sale price - purchase price + expenses, broken down fairly clearly by @Jake Baker) not just on the sale price.The tax treatment on sale of a Primary Residence vs.

Not as good as a separate metering, but its less cost and seems fair to me with little added effort for billing.

It won't be perfect of course, but it will be a step up from the laissez faire system (or lack thereof) that we've been using in the past. 

He was helping a friend in a weird situation but $700 was fairly close to what others rented for.

I prefer buying sub $200 in a market where median is $350k+, long as it's fair condition, ancillary/satellite MSA, because I know time will slingshot appreciation. 

Unless the guru is giving fairly strong assurances they are going to bring investors into deals for you, the rest of raising capital is fairly straightforward (but not easy).  

If they are billed separately, the charges may fall into Fair Debt Collection Practices Act laws.

Yeah you’re fairly safe as a landlord.  

You're making a fairly common mistake of designing your castle when you haven't even learned how to build a chicken coop.