I have a duplex  that my two tenants share the utilities charges.  One tenant with the larger unit pays 2/3 of electric, gas and water.  The other tenant pays the 1/3,  During the summer, the electric bill was almost ...

This, coupled with a reduction on the price of the property given to us by the seller and the passage of about a year leaves us with needing only a few hundred thousand dollars when we finally closed a few months ago.Being left with over $2M on the loan, we've been making rather large payments to get rid of the amount in excess of what we need.

Electric is cheaper, and no other fuel listed.Don't forget all the code enforcement fees that the City throws around. 

Also, with me living there, I am pretty confident that things would rarely get “out of hand” or that my tenants would cause excessive damage/wear to the property.

I can rent each unit out for 950 producing gross rents of 2850 leaving me with an excess of $350/month.

People get tripped up with the 14k exclusion number as if a gift in excess of that amount triggers a tax liability.

Perhaps there is someone willing to take a second position for the excess.

I also want to get more familiar with possibly structuring an LLC properly for both protection and from lawsuits and possibly from excessive tax.

@Michele Fischer @Brie SchmidtHave you had a case were they owe you money due to excessive damages? 

yup... if you had your days in the contract.... you can say anything... excess damage, deferred maintenance, whatever you want... get him or her back to the table and renegotiate.