@Dennis GallagherIt's my understanding that the "Income-Expense Ratio" primarily use operating expenses as the expense variable, which includes costs like utilities, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, repairs, property management fees, and trash removal, all of which are considered when calculating a property's operating expense ratio (OER).You calculate OER by dividing the total operating expenses by the gross operating income of a property.

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

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.

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

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

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

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).

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.  

(prorating utilities by tenant head count for instance). 

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.