Thank you for your service.

Almost all agents will say they are willing to work with investors, but you need to make sure you and the agent are a good fit for each other before you commit to any extended service agreement. 

I wouldn't mind spending the time on rehab, and seeing as how I will be using a low down payment to owner occupy for a year I should have some reserve funds to do upgrades.

Many are telling me to wait and save up some more money for reserves.

This lot has another service for all utilities it just needs to be cleaned up....

In Northern Indiana (Nisource), it used to be 20+ years ago (and I assume its still the case)  you would have to put a deposit down to cover the gas and electric distribution services, and you could get some credit back based on houses going into service with some assumed usage patterns.City run utilities and REMC's would have drastically different practices. 

The upside is that they are very reliable, efficient, and quiet.What about a point-of-service HW heater in each unit that only feeds the w/d?

I got a section 8 tenant out by calling everyday and offering to pay for moving service.

Even buying out of state will be tough because you'll likely need a down payment of 20%+ and you want to have cash reserves for when something goes wrong at the property and you have to fix it.

At one time after the acquisition of my other business, I switched CPA's, believing the other guy can service me better, as he had a larger staff.