PM's will keep all late fees, they hold the security deposits so they collect all the interest on security deposits. 

Maintenance at at PM company or one of the big hedge owners like AH4R, leasing at apartment complex will teach you a lot about applications, fraud, leases, collections, evictions. 

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

My suggestion would be to cap your utilities at a certain amount and have Tenants pay anything over that amount.That will help you manage your expenses, and also allow Tenants to gage their usage each month, and make adjustments if they don't want to go over the allotted amount.As far as collection, provide the bill showing any overages and just have them pay for it along with their rent. 

How do I go about finding those who'd rather just collect the insurance money then sell it off at a discount?  

You will be paying 6-10% for just having them collect rent. 

I looked into the maintenance option years back to discover a trend of:  apx. 8% monthly fee which only included rent collection (everything else from maintenance to turnovers etc, extra, and poor reputation on repairs.)

Did you collect a pet deposit?

When you can borrow 80% tax free and continue to collect the income?

It offers a lot more than just rent collection.