My family has recently purchased a home in Storrs, Connecticut, and I am looking for what to do with its enormous barn:                It is close to a big college campus and the winters hit hard. 

Take a vacancy hit (I took ~1mo to find tenant), and find the best quality tenant and current market rent.3.

I peeked in the windows today, saw 3 prong outlets, an electric panel outside that looked like it had current wiring, and I saw PVC pipe in the crawl space. 

That's the reason why so many investors hit the pavement.

I was wondering if I should switch to natural gas or electric baseboard or just hang on to oil?

., electrical, painting, etc.

If your submarket doesn't fully support RUBS I still think it's a good idea to consider lowering rents and implementing it because tenants that are forced to think about their water and electricity usage tend to use less of it.

Maxed out credit cards from a month ago finally hitting your credit absolutely can ding you 100 points.

Why does the landlord have to take the hit and be ripped off ?

I believe this building is a solid base hit, but may turn into a homerun if appreciation and rents increase in the area.