Heat, and Hot water is included in the rent. 

Base things like heat on the relative sizes of the units and water on the number of people living there.

After inspection we ask seller to fix few vital items like the heat wasn't working.

In the end; they would have had to dig-down the basement in order to achieve the necessary height, and then ended up just deciding to vacate the basement and convert it to "Heat and Storage" and ended up loosing all of their rentable potential from the basement level...Most of our clients see it as too much of a risk to try to keep the existing basement floor when it is around 6'-11" - 7'-1" rough.

in the SF peninsula and down to Cupertino there was a builder who built about 30k homes in the 50s and 60s  called Eickler these were modern heat in the floor tons of glass interior walk ways with gardens in them etc etc.. very unique ..

Therefore, if the tenant must pay heat, electric, hot water, cold water, sewer or trash, their rent assistance would be lowered to accommodate the tenant utility payments. 

Do you pay the heating/cooling or do the tenants pay those utilities?

., there is nothing wrong with beautifying war-zone areas but just know that you have to be aware of the element that you will be surrounded by, keep the candle burning bright because you may have to spend a couple nights in the property to keep it from being rampaged, i haven't step into this arena, i prefer to go where the houses are selling, in neighborhoods that i know i wouldn't be afraid to live, but to each his own, if you can get a line of credit opened and then from there look into getting a mentor or someone who has done this before if you want to build your portfolio, it wont be easy but nothing is life worth anything is, do you duty and due diliegence and you should be alright, let me know if i can help keep posting but most of all keep sharing

Especially if demand for real estate heats up again soon with lower interest rates and a tight supply of homes.

Be careful if the heat runs.