This is partially due to the Urban Service Boundry. 

Odds are your lease requires you to pay the water bill and apparently you cancelled service, so he is now billing you for the cost up until the new people moved in.

I have used services like Cozy.co in the past to collect rent - but not sure about the application fee.I know that plenty of services will do the screenings for you, but I don't mind (and actually prefer) to be the one who vets each applicant. 

They are all in stable neighborhoods composed of primary owner/occupiers in markets with strong 30 year population + job growth forecasts.Sources of risk come from a variety of sources, starting with (1) the market, (2) the property and location, (3) price you pay, (4) management strategy, (5) rental rate you set, (6) rehab budget, (7) service provided to your tenants and how strict you are with them, (8) your ability to attract and retain high quality brokers, leasing agents, inspectors, handyman/contractors/agents, etc, etc., (9) level of investment experience you have, (10) familiarity of the market, etc.As an investor, one of my primary responsibilities is risk management... my ability to fully understand all of the risks that I am taking and put processes/structures in place to minimize or control these risks.And if you are a successful risk manager, i have found that in REI you are able to mitigate the downside and generate returns that ARE NOT commensurate with the risks you are taking and do so by providing a triple win to your investors, your tenants, and yourself!

The note will be serviced by a third party servicer. 

The buyer is just that buying the property they pay tax, insurance and your principal and interest and an escrow service fee.

Im sure they would have the payment for services paid to their broker like they do with every other payment they receive.

The utility might do a read-only for free, but lots will charge for this service. 

I have never used Simplysafe, but most security systems use cellular and the cost of service is part of their monitoring fee. 

Get someone out there, get your tenants heat and sleep well knowing you did the right thing and provided your tenants with excellent service.