@Paul Welden, thank you for your encouragement and advice!

Hopefully I can answer all of your questions but here goes:1: BiggerPockets advertises a pretty nice software/app called RentRedi, it has lots of cool features like tenant screening and payment services so I encourage you to check them out.2: For utility splits if there isn't a separate meter already it's probably not the cheapest move to put them in.

I also am encouraged to know that people are still having success with this strategy in 2020!

Thanks for the words of encouragement!

I'm at the point in online course where we're encouraged to evaluate properties.

Depending on the area, it may work out better.These are all cautions, but in general it's a great option and I'd certainly encourage anyone to look into and see if the numbers work!

I also don't want a listing agent coming in encouraging him to list much higher than my calculated value.  

Again though, I would encourage you to take action now while you don't own it yet to protect yourself. 

@Abel Curiel Thank you for encouragement!

My goal is to make communication easier, not harder, to encourage them to stay in touch.