he is justifying price by his recent upgrades of the roof, heat pumps, and other upgrades.BUT, like you said, how can I say no to $48,000/year MINUS maintenance? 

How hard would it be to install Central Heating and Air in each unit?

Your fluid, stream-of-consciousness style is very Faulkneress and can be challenging to read for some.

As I do research on owning rental properties, I'm trying to figure out how so many of the rental property owners in my area are managing to make a profit while offering free heat and water to their tenants.

I looked at a condo this week 2/1 on the second floor which had a one day open house before the bank goes through an online auction ( 2nd time around). the broker there said the water and oil heating had been turned off in 2013 and everything had been properly winterized - the electric was all working.  

Why is a tenant paying the same rent as someone that is getting "free" heat?  

Depends on location.Down here in South Florida with the humidity and heat, carpets can be gross.I love to buy properties with carpets over terrazo. 

Most of the dramatic heat of the moment texts I receive solve themselves after a little while.

My biggest expenses right now are our house and bills to heat, cool, turn the power on, etc.

Come April-May-June, assuming that things heat up again here as they always do in the spring and early summer, I figured we will get $760k to $775k.