People get assaulted and shot in the neighborhood occasionally, but this happens at 2am and alcohol is normally involved.

Occasionally a small one {typically owned by a non-investor} might make it to a wholesaler or agent, but I would be instantly wary of any building being brought to us in this manner as it would be unlikely to be a good deal.

My goals are to own rental properties preferably multi family's and do some flips occasionally.

Throw in an occasional roof, water heater, furnace and $900 for a 3 bed 1 bath house seems like the bargain of the century. 

Also I am not a big fan of having Directv dishes everywhere and installed to my buildings. 

When I'm in international cities, I always go for the local traditional dishes.

I occasionally strike up a conversation when I am at HD to buy something for my house.If you are buying a specialized product you might be better off going to a specialty store.

So Although I don't make it to all the monthly meet ups now, I do try to make it up occasionally.

Make time, your 80hr work week can occasionally suffer a reduction of a few hours once a year.

Generally it is hard to make the numbers box on sub-metering utilities, but it is occasionally cost effective.In cases where it is not, you can have your lease indicate tenant repays you for utilities, pro-rated between the two units.To get back to your original problem, utilities should be a minor cost in the scheme of things.