Depending on the setup I might shut off water to say a washing machine in the basement. 

@Tishon Greene I think renting by the room is muddying the waters a bit, especially a one car garage you'd get one additional bedroom, long term my guess is you won't rent by the room forever and will eventually transition to renting whole units. 

Power, water, sewer, internet, etc all cost something.

I'd say buy more property and create passive income mate. rinse water and repeat 

Tenant is paying heat/electricity owner is paying water

I got an offer from a utility company for one of my rental properties to purchase insurance for the exterior water line service for $4.95/month.

What about funds for utility deposits for water/sewer/trash?

I would like to find an easy SF home in my city and start small, test the waters on being a landlord, learn property management on a smaller scale with less risk, but I feel somewhat at ease because it is my hometown.

Foremost even insures my Dock and water toys in case someone got hurt.

The reason it always seems to happen is the appraiser doesn't want to be in hot water in the event the property is foreclosed and so they tend to appraise the property VERY CLOSE to the asking price - all my properties that have loans have been within 2K of the appraisal price.