Would the house still smell from the cats even if there is no carpet???

That's how many months its going to take you just to break even and for it to START being a good decision to refi. 

I just wouldn’t spend a lot of extra money providing what for me has been essentially a break even process.

We've even tried to get the lender to report our on time payments to the credit bureaus but they won't.

It was nightmare after nightmare with this guy to the point where I double checked his licensing, but apparently there are no real qualifications even for commercial work in NE?

Even if you could get $5000 per unit and every tenant was perfect, you would still lose money.

My guess (even though we’ve explained the process to our tenants many times) is that they assume it’s paid instantly and go about their day as normal, not being careful about the scheduled withdrawal.

If tenants are paying their own heat bill, they would call the gas utility and have the unit put in their own name, but tenants can't do that if the heating unit is shared by all four units.You won't have happy tenants if you are in control of the heat and you aren't even on premises. 

Is it even worth it to do an inspection without utilities on?

I've included an example below to help illustrate this.So different lenders have different rates (which do vary even for DSCR loans) but these are factors they all consider.See example below:DSCR < 1Principal + Interest = $1,700Taxes = $350, Insurance = $100, Association Dues = $50Total PITIA = $2200Rent = $2000DSCR = Rent/PITIA = 2000/2200 = 0.91Since the DSCR is 0.91, we know the expenses are greater than the income of the property.DSCR >1Principal + Interest = $1,500Taxes = $250, Insurance = $100, Association Dues = $25Total PITIA = $1875 Rent = $2300DSCR = Rent/PITIA = 2300/1875 = 1.23DSCR lenders generally let you vest either individually or as an LLC.