Utility Expense includes electric to common areas and water to the 4-unit.

City water/sewer is a good start.

Looking at investments from the maintenance side of the equation once you own it,  I believe a 3 bedroom, 2 bath one story home on a slab foundation connected to public water and sewer is the perfect rental for buy and holds.  

Heating and cooling - central or individual units?

IMO, FICO scores are so generic that while you can filter out, you may also be throwing the baby out with the water - - missing tenants that are just recovering from messy lives.Before pulling a CR/BG report, I vet the previous landlords, employment and income, thus saving expense for a non-starter.Then, the CR (if you get a real one from Trans Union/Experion) will have all the accounts and their payment histories.  

Cool to see your story, i look forward to seeing your discussions here on RE.

If we had the highest water costs for example, those are variable and you can manage that better.

It has new a/c unit, water heater, and kitchen.

For another, duplex's (for example) start at $500k, and that is for ghetto, so you need a cool mill cash in the bank to start to do multiple simultaneously.

I am a chemical engineer in the water treatment community and am currently serving in the Army as an officer.