if the owner is paying the utilities , go count the meters and verfy that the buildings are legal 9 families, there should also a public landing meter for each building for the hallways and out door lighting . i dont know what state your in but also make sure the tenants aren't on some sort of programs where the landlord is required pay the utilities to have the tenants .

Thanks again for the kind words and I hope to chat soon.

@Blair Poelman Thats what I looked into, they tried sending me a sample and I needed a special program to even look at the sample so i wanted to see what other local investors were doing!

@Matt Shields, right now 6700 new units are being built in South Baltimore alone, crime is down this year, and the only reason why Baltimore is losing people is because the biggest voucher program in Baltimore called MBQ is forcing all new voucher holders to rent in opportunity areas, ie towns outside the city in Baltimore County areas with low crime, low unemployment, ie really nice areas where houses sell for 300K. 

I suggest you focus on your Step 1 so you'll get matched into a good residency program and then you can pay down your 400k debt :]

There is less competition in the dirt and there are programs to abate demolition and nuisance liens in Duval County.

There are programs that utilize the operating statements and rent rolls instead of Schedule E's.

And also look into first time buyer programs that offer down payment assistance and other low money down programs in your area.

I just would hate to get all my tenants on one program and decide to switch later.

I found that there were two ladies at the pro desk that were dialed in and knew the program inside and out.