Not to mention things like utilities, permits, materials and people not showing up.

Is there any material to put down that you got get slammed with putting a retention pond ect?

@Jim Mundy lots of options, but @Brandon Turner ‘s book on rental property investing or “the ABCs of real estate investing” by Ken McElroy are both pretty good starts to cover a lot of material on the subject!

I’ve only started reading material on this site and I’m reading some books now but here is my plan so far. 

It's often impossible for these contractors to make any money at all if they don't make a determined effort to screw you, the end customer, in terms of time spent doing the work, quality and thoroughness of the workmanship, and materials.

Willing to help paint, do runs, gather materials, use my Spanish for tenants ( if you can't speak Spanish).

It would have been tough to get under $100 but maybe close if I used cheaper materials without custom showers. 

The triplex is fully occupied and the numbers in the report reflect it as so.I put a lot of the material and tools on credit cards, which I am 8 weeks away from having no credit card debt at all (YAY!)

These are two commonly culprits, especially depending on the pipe material and age of the sewer.

Other pages to reference include BiggerPockets blogs and education materials and Avail local laws pages.