Got a call from the tenant that the utility company couldn't find the house to transfer the utilities(no mailbox and numbers pulled off the house for exterior painting :O).

Because taxes are low here and I only look at places with tenant paid utilities, I drop the ratio down to 1.5 - 1.8% personally.

My fun is in rehabbing properties - so far I've only held as rentals but would like to be able to acquire some properties that would make good flips as well.I have a background in construction and my brother is a general contractor - so I get some pretty good deals on vendors and materials (most of his vendors do work for high end home builders as well).For the last 10 years, I've also had my TX RE sales license but have not done too many deals utilizing it.

Tenants pay their own utilities.

Walls, floors, siding, counters, utils, etc.

I called the utility co. and the property I'm going to see has the power turned off right now.

But they did have custom websites which made it a little easier.I always liked working with partners because we can divide the labor & cover more ground together than individually.

Kyle it's an easy decision.It's like a custom house where you have to find that ONE buyer to love it versus a neutral house that appeals to the masses.If it's a deep blue it's worth it to buy some primer first so you don't have to put on 4 coats of paint to cover it.To paint the kitchen you might have 50 to 60 bucks in materials if you do yourself.You will get that back alone with the first months rent payment.My experience is tenants will take an off color but then they want a discount for it.My apartments are 1,200 sq ft units.I get 5 gallons of Home Depot paint for 53.00.

One thing that comes to mind--what if there's an energy crunch in the future that drives up utilities costs and larger houses become less desirable?

They require that you fax the deed, utility bills, etc. to them to prove that you are a landlord, but they don't require that an inspector come out to your house to see if the credit reports are in a locked room, like some other services do.