@John ClarkPurchase: 530kDown: 5% (conventional)Seller credit: 7.5kClosing: 10KRehab: 70k (Cash, no improvement loan)Rough 70k breakdown (high level / bigger ticket items): 25K Labor 10K Landscaping 10K Appliances 3K Staircases spiral 3K Paint 3K Counter tops 2K Gutters 2K Vinyl floor 2K Porch/fence/stepsRemaining 10k include materials from Home Depot/ Menards / Lowes... lots of receipts on my end.

Once you feel you have a good grasp on whatever strategy you decide to utilize to invest, then dive in.

Ditto what the others have said (usually tenants pay their own utilities), and require them doing so in the lease (especially if the house has gas on top of electric and water).   

Utilities are split at the duplex and the water and sewer are well and septic.

People could afford upper scale finishes and materials for a home this size.Is he planning to build communities/ subdivisions of these homes or build to order?

And some will take this further by saying that if there are landlord paid utilities, one can expect expenses to be an even higher percentage of rent (60% is a figure that gets tossed into play).Search the BP site to find threads that discuss those in greater detail.

@Joe Bostick You should utilize a VA loan and get a 3-4 unit every time you move to a different area. 

I believe my main focus will be on houses that are between 2-3 bedrooms with less than 1500 square feet as I would like to keep as much of the effort "in-house" as possible, as well as keeping purchase prices around $20K and selling prices around $60-80K, with renovation costs at between $10-20K for materials as well as a new roof with a contractor- unless I start putting on my own steel roofs which I can do myself.

But what other techniques are you utilizing to ensure that you can weather a vacancy storm in your market, especially if you don't have a large portfolio to carry a few vacancies?

However, generally the management fee only includes collecting rents and handling the contractors (lawn care, repairs, snow removal, utilities, etc.) they will generally pass-through these expenses to the property owner.