As landlords, we can't utilize our energy worrying about what tenants think, whether or not they are having a hard time paying the rent, or whether or not they are physically ill or lose their job because we landlords have our own burdens to worry about e.g. major expenses, increases in insurance, property taxes, non-paying tenants, liable lawsuits and we have our own personal problems, illnesses and griefs to deal with.

I often see lots of duplexes selling for only 20-30k less than a similar quality triplex, so to me I'd rather pick up the 3rd unit for pennies on the dollar, ESPECIALLY if you're utilizing a low down loan product. 

All right so I bought my house in July 2020 , the mortgage on my house is $4050 , I rent the first floor for $2400 with utilities included , they just finished year one of a 3 year lease , the second floor is renting for $2150 with utilities separate but as of January 1st the rent is being raised to $2,300 with utilities still separate.

Also helps me answer the same, I have a current  HELOC but have not utilized it yet, looking for the right opportunity.

@Alex DelTaxation when it comes to house-hacking can become very complex.To answer your question - Yes, you would include the utilities billed as income.You would be eligible for a potential deduction for the actual utilities used by the tenant that you paid for.

There are strategies that you can utilize to make your offer stand out.

For example, the mortgage is $1000 and i can collect rent for $750, leaving me to pay the remaining $250 for the mortgage plus utilities. 

Purchase price: $405,000 Cash invested: $4,000 2 bedroom 1.5 bath with $480 true cashflow (PITI, CapEx, Vacancy, Utilities, etc..)

Those can be tinkered with and upgraded along the way, but in my experience most agents who enjoy the utility of their website will eventually move to a host service that adds a lot of bells and whistles onto the website (SEO, CRMs, blog posts, etc).I’d start with this:  many brokers have a master website with the ability for each agent to have a micro-site within it (could be an agent page, possibly some search functionality, etc).  

Solution: invest the $1MM gain into a mobile home park syndication where cost segregation / bonus depreciation is being utilized.