I've since paid of my mortgage and have no slavery inducing loans to service.

Larger government laws overrule smaller ones.Anyway, this page from the Ohio bar says you can put it in the tenant's name: https://www.ohiobar.org/forpublic/resources/lawfac...It's sounding like "keep the water in the owner's name" is common practice people think is actually required.Edit: I'm obviously not giving anyone legal advice, I'm just an accountant raised by lawyers, so I'm persnickety about this stuff.

What would be a fair price to pay for his services?

The common saying you get what you pay for definitely justifies higher rent as my focus is to differentiate the properties with quality and customer service. 

Service charge if property is located in building with multiple owners (150-350 € p.a.)Also, depending of the nature of your contract you eventually are liable for stamp duty (10 % of one month rent, upon signature of the contract).In overall very dry deal.

They will then defend this price by saying something like "current rents are below market, they could easily be raised to X, Y or Z"  or, "the landlord is presently carrying the utilities, you could put them back in the hands of the tenants"These are both improvements to the business which should improve the free cash flow the business throws off.  

Other than that, her background check did not raise much concern.

However, the water company now requires that, first, a new meter pit be installed outside of the a home, a new second service line be run underground to the basement, etc.  

Once they have accepted our offer: they can set the mortgage payment up to be serviced through the escrow company so the seller knows the mortgage is being paid on time.If they have a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) it will need to be paid off through escrow when selling Subject To The Existing Mortgage.All that’s left to do is to sign the contract and and we the investors will walk them through the rest.

Its a wonderful city. i have lived here all my life born and raised.