If you luck out, you could find a property here that requires a rehab, utilized a 203k rehab loan and boom, there is your equity.

They will pay their utility bills (and sometimes non-living bills like Netflix and Amazon) before they pay you because they know that you give them months to pay and are 'understanding'.2.

You can turn utilities on auto pay, and then just record everything in google sheets.

In addition if landlord pays water and sewer even with no leaks there were increase in per usage costs from the utility companies that drove up cost per unit.

We hold a unit vacant for one week and then expect you to start paying rent and utilities after that, even if you don't intend to occupy yet.

( I was thinking delray, boynton or lake worth) 2 - what are the added cost to take into account for str (hotel tax and cleaning and utilities right ?) 

I'm thinking that you're maybe dealing with similar to Indy weather, so I'll tell you one bush here that works well year round and what most of our utility companies (at least back in the 90's and 00's) had running around electrical boxes in front yards. 

Would tapping into our equity ($400k) on our primary residence utilizing a home equity loan be too risky for our first investment property purchase?

I'm a New Jersey investor and I've been utilizing the "subject-to" existing strategy for about 3 years.

Or if I should refinance later and utilize a different loan down the road?