It never occured to me.

Actually, if I may quote Peter Schiff, whose Podcasts I routinely listen to, inflation has already occurred. 

This may be a dumb question, but it just occurred to me that a duplex that I am analyzing has separate meters, but only one forced air furnace.

I have a worksheet for each property and my worksheet has rent and expense accounts that line up with what I need for my taxes so I just enter everything in and have a summary for my accountant.Each year, I have one entry for rent, one for insurance, one for property tax, possibly a few for repairs...I'm not sure if there is much value in recording each entry as things occur as long as you can get it all correct in the end. 

When you are taking care of the property and treat people with respect tenants dont sue.IF by some rare occurence you do have someone wanting to sue, you should have an umbrella liability policy with your insurance agent anyway.

It doesn't sound like you have a large property, so you'd be creating a situation where you'd be pretty much right in the midst of any drama that occurs. 

I want to protect my Ira from any potential lawsuit etc if that were to occur.

Thanks for the detailed explanation on how the fraud could occur.

To legalize the transaction with my lender and to have everything spelled out i.e. interest rate, term period, how to proceed if default occurs etc...  

I'd prefer to save my repairing budget for anything that could potentially occur after I purchase.