Expenses are low because tenants pay their own utilities except for water and trash.

Maintenance fees are common and the include the the care of the common areas,pools lawns etc.depending on the amenities of the complex it can vary as you have found out?

Mother in law suites shrink your buyers pool - a great asset for someone that is looking for that specific feature  - a deterrent to the other 95% of folk that would prefer not to have it.

Push the money into federal municipalities, state municipalities, and paying off your most profitable property in my opinion.Federal and state municipality funds are tax free investments, and mine perform in the 8-9% range, which means tax effective 11-12% range, equal to that of a decent cap return for real estate, plus they usually pay monthly.on top of that, the last thing the states and feds wont pay is their water, power, and sewage bills, hence why its a good steady flow of income.Also, it gives you three sources of solid residual income.

Hi all,My name is Mark Anthon.This will be my first taste of real estate buying and holding.I'm currently looking at a 3 bedroom 1.5 bath townhouse condo:Beds3 BedHouse Size1,246 Sq FtPrice $149,900Condo/townhouseBaths1 Full, 1 Half BathPrice/sqft $120Year Built1977 6 roomsFireplace2 parking spaceit comes with private trash pickup, pool, and basketball courtsAverage listing price for similar homes $229,794 Average sale price for similar homes $147,173 if i'm following the 2% rule, I can roughly get out a $2.9K (or a little lower) rent out of this. 

She does not have any documentation on the mortgage, but I show the mortgage in 2004 for $74k and the last assignment being in 2013.I show 4 years of tax liens held by various investors totaling about $5k before interest, also a water lien and code violations.  

Annual Operating Expenses Real Estate Taxes $14,650.00 Insurance $6,874.00 Water and Sewer $18,171.00 Snow Removal $0.00 Trash Removal (ROT $60 x 12) $3,768.00 Electric $10,594.00 Gas $9,803.00 Oil $0.00 Legal (rule of thumb) $500.00 Management Fees 10% $0.00 Repairs and Maintenance $49,329.00 Other (Turn Costs + Onsite) $41,222.00 Other (Onsite Manager) $24,000.00 Total Annual Operating Expense $178,911.00 I'm thinking this is a pretty easy fix.

Also, another bedroom opens your renter pool as well, a nicer kitchen does not.

So about a month ago we had a pipe burst in one of our unit, water ran from upstairs bathroom down to kitchen and into basement. water remediation company had fans and dehumidifiers in that tenants place for about a week running continuously. their utilities bill webt from being approx $50 normally to about $108 dollars so around double. theres 3 roommates in that unit and each one got a $100 disount for that months rent to compensate for any contractors coming in and out and not having hot water for about 5 days. my question is should i pay for the additional electricity used caused most likely by the dehumidifiers and fans?

"Pool" your money with an operating agreement for the LLC that spells out everything (who does what, who invests what %, etc.) then find private lenders who will loan you the money to purchase the homes, not banks.