The landlord was charging the tenants to pay all utilities, which I never do.

You have to make sure to double and triple-check the SOW that you sign off on with your contractor.Even though you know you talked about something being included in a certain price, if it's not on there, they will charge you extra based on it not being on what was signed off on.

I also set up the LLC and am in charge of all tracking, accounting, checking vendor work, tenant relations, two how’s, etc. he sends the money and bills and I do the rest.

You may in fact be responsible for rent until the landlord can re-rent the unit, but the landlord also doesn't get to "double dip" (charge you 3 months rent if s/he rents it out in a month).In practical terms, you may have some leverage as far as mutually agreeing to end the lease, vs. forcing the landlord to evict you to regain possession of the unit, especially in the current environment when the eviction courts are quite backed up.I'm definitely not a lawyer, and you're asking a legal question, so I would urge you to consult one on this.

Tenant does not want to pay utility charges till statement shows her date of occupancy.

Have a plan for your charges, making on time payments, and paying the balance off within a quick amount of time to avoid costly finance charges. 

Finance of 103.5k at whatever your interest rate your hard money lender charges.

And, yes, keep in mind the super high annual fee that CA charges.

There was a small water leak under a toilet in a rental property I own. I asked a general contractor that I've not worked with before to fix it. We did not discuss pricing, and I instructed him to fix it and bill me, ...

1 EV can cost you more than $20 a day to charge.