I got a real estate license (and access to the MLS) to buy houses, not sell them, but I ended up becoming an agent to support myself and feed my habit!

So each month, the HELOC balance reduces by about $1,500 - $2,000, depending on what our spending habits have been that month.I learned about this from TruthinEquity.com.

I do care that my property gets repaired and that my lost rent when the unit is not habitable gets paid. 

If this is a complete gut to the studs, then clearly you have the legal ability to pay the tenants currently in there to move as it will not be habitable.

Luck usually happens once as you become more informed your deals will happen again and again.Spend 30 minutes for 30 consecutive days on Bigger Pockets and you will receive an Addict award along with a habit; as well as learning and retaining useful real estate information without struggling.As a reminder Bigger Pockets has various resources such as: ebooks, forums, blogs, webinars, podcasts, keyword alerts, an awards system, a learn section, colleagues, informative people in many fields of real estate, and more.Connect with REIA meetings, accountability partners, and mastermind groups.

Without utilities the house is not habitable and if them paying utilities is part of the lease, then they are in violation of the lease and need to either leave or get the utilities sorted. 

The milestone inspection consists of two phases: a visual examination of habitable and nonhabitable areas of the building in phase one and, if needed, a phase two inspection that may involve destructive or nondestructive testing to fully assess areas of structural distress.

The only time I release a resident from a lease is when there is a habitability issue or to prevent a potential lawsuit.

Thanks for the reply Andrew, do you know if that Fannie Mae loan comes with any strict requirements such as if the house is habitable or using certain contractors etc.?

Real estate investing has a lot of 'gray area' What I'm saying is in most cases it's illegal to accept a commission without being a licensed professional. if you over complicate the thinking from the beginning you'll talk or think yourself out of deals out of habit later on.I'm not sure I can simplify my previous post, but if your still overthinking it, I can try to paint a picture for you.Also don't be so anxious about getting your reale estate license!!!