What should I charge for rent? 

@Colin Foley You have to check your equity position if you think you reach at 80% you can refinance as conventional loan to get out from MI. 

My financing will either be FHA or conventional with approximately 5% down.

Hi, I'm currently operating 7 properties all financed through conventional loans without an LLC.

Thank you ever so much.Don't see what the charge is after the 2 free ones, may still need to dig.Thanks you.

What should I charge for rent?

The allure of being able to cap major expenses for an AC or Heat pump at 450$ a year plus 100$ per incident charge seems like a good way to keep your costs fairly predictable.I suppose, if you pay this thing for 10 years, and have some minor things like a dishwasher/ AC issues/ Heat pump issues and they fix it, could be a wash more or less.   

Also if it is just paint and a little cosmetic stuff unless you got a smoking deal you may not have enough equity to refinance out into a favorable long term conventional loan.  

I read about people doing this, but I don't see anything about how they actually set up the ownership/investments.So here's my question- in these situations, should I try birddogging and give them the deals and charge them a fee, or is that illegal/shady?

You can look into portfolio lenders or commercial loans if you max out conventional ( Fannie /Freddie ) loans .