I just furnished a house to rent out and the utilities went way up due to air conditioning costs, etc. 

I have to believe this is very common. 

We have a camera in the common area. 

Yes, and what of the common areas? 

Money is "earned" when it is applied to the charges.I don't know the law in every state but I network with thousands of property managers around the country and this is pretty common practice and backed by the courts.As for pot, you have every right to ban smoking inside the unit.

- What are the common mistakes I can educate myself to avoid?

It's common for beginners to fail to calculate their own time.

A common mistake I see is someone will list a space as rent is below market but actually for the box size of the space it is actually above market or market rent.How is the space positioned?

From what I know, the common process of financing in the real estate development is like this:https://cdn.corporatefinanceinstitute.com/assets/p...But what if a junior developer who has less job experience in this field than any others and is trying to develop a huge scale of townhouses?

I utilized the strategies that I have learned to utilize from Bigger Pockets to identify when and how to approach a potential investor.