Third deal - need some advice/thoughts

[Shaun Carl]

Hi guys, 

Its been a while, sorry. 

I am working on my third deal. I am currently about to purchase a triplex with a garage. 

Current rents are Garage: 110, 3 bedroom unit: 475, and 1 bedroom unit: 375 per month and there is the whole downstairs that the owners were using for a church, but will be leaving at the end of the month. These are low especially since they include utilities due to all being on same meters. Current owners never wanted to raise rents and had the current rents covering mortgage and expenses. 

searching for comparable apartments put rates at 650 for the 3 bedroom and 500 for the single.

I will be paying $16,250 cash and assuming a mortgage for 23k left for 5 years @ 5.5%. Comparables in the area are hard because it has a storefront currently, but I think they are close to 50k+ to be conservative. 

insurance: 2000 (due to a church in bottom unit - should be closer to 800 if all residential)

taxes: 3300

water: 350

gas: 1800

electric: 1000

assuming mortgage: 386

Should I keep the bottom unit a commercial type or rehab it into an apartment. It will need a bathtub or shower and a couple walls. It looks like it used to be an apartment, but now has a glass front. This would probably have to change also. It was gutted before the previous owners and they just put up all new fixtures, kitchen cabinets and studs and walls that were donated to the church. I have two other buildings that are both 4 unit residential, so I do not have much experience with storefronts or commercial. 

Should I also separate the utilities? Is the cost worth it? I am planning on slowly raising the rents to come up to comparables or just under, but dont like the idea of also paying for utilities. 

Thoughts on this deal?