However, if you're running your numbers then you'll want to make sure that you're including all the interested paid for the money borrowed from your HELOC as well as the carrying costs including utilities, insurance and property taxes.

If you sit empty for one month, you lose $1250 for PITI, plus utilities and any other expenses.

Are you paying any utilities as the owner, aside from water and user fee?

(prorating utilities by tenant head count for instance). 

I'd love to utilize their expertise when assessing a property since they are local but I'm not sure what the general expectation is when I don't have a tangible property and I have not entered into contract to work with them yet.Some questions I have are: local regulations/permitting timeline, property's potential from their perspective, landscaping/amenities cost estimate (they also help facilitate this).

Then moved out and we're sharing another house hack with less than $200 out of pocket monthly for utilities and internet while using 3 bedrooms and a bonus room for ourselves.

What are the expenses (taxes, who pays utilities, etc)?

I am a fan of utilizing equity in existing real estate owned to build the rental portfolio though at the beginning, rather than just relying on money saved alone.  

Service would change, though, as the successful experiences of early-adopter customers would demonstrate the utility and superiority of NewCo.

They can take care of a lot of the monotonous tasks, and even do things like send leases, screen tenants, add rent charges, pay utility bills, the list goes on.