It’s a great way to lower your living expenses while gaining experience as a landlord.

If a tenant would refuse to pay, you could perform an eviction just as any landlord would be able to do. 

When the landlord/PM files a claim, the money is pulled from the tenants bank account or charged to their card.

This simply means you have language in your lease that states the landlord is responsible for paying utilities up to a certain $ amount (let's say $100 for the sake of argument).

Unfortunately many landlords take the first group they find in these situations and come from the ideology that all college students are slobs so no sense offering anything nice. 

Common advice I've received from other landlords is to avoid them because they often leak or fail and are difficult to maintain.

And the NNN leaves you only managing a long term lease rather than managing a property.And given your expertise, there's nothing wrong with a transition from farmer to landlord of the farmer. 

So that's my Rx for you; do LESS, simplify, don't chase grand-slams swing for the bases, focus on the simple obvious, be a good landlord. 

Not a home owners, or landlord.

Those horror stories are typically from amateur landlords that don't know how to screen tenants.