My wife not comfortable putting our house as equity, therefore we are utilizing other options to fund investment properties. 

Midwest cities with populations under 300,000 typically have cheap property taxes.

I've got a property under contractPurchase price $78K out the door (I have cash to close) Intent: build on the property which already has a functioning well, septic, and needs PGE installed Total buildout on the property utilities: $128K including the original land purchase price.

Usually MTR comes fully furnished with utilities included, so you pay for the convenience.if the area has traveling nurses, other professionals that come for a few months for work they normally pay more, in certain cases the employer pays the rent not familiar with that particular market,  but worth looking into it.

I log into the accounts but guests typically just log out and use their own. 

I borrowed $110K from a private lender for the purchase and self funded the repair of the offices. 3 months later, I rented 6,000 sq.ft. of office space to a corporation for $21,000/month + utilities for 5 years with another 5 year option.

If we get the impression they aren't committed or if they are looking for a "get rich quick" scheme, we typically don't accept them in the community. 

Estimate utilities and figure out who pays them (separate meters, landlord paid, etc)5.

Also, consider this copy & paste advice below:Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a Class A property in Class D area, what quality of tenant will you get?

This is an area that home inspectors typically do not cover in their reports.