All Forum Posts by: Nicholas B.

You could overlay it with OSB and glue down a layer of rubber roofing. You could even lay out some purlins and install real metal roofing. Either of those will outlast the walls, which are likely already rotting at the bottom. 

Those sheds are so cheap though - literally $400-$500. Yours is already rotting through. I'd just replace the shed, but buck up a couple hundred more dollars for resin this time.

If you're trying to go cheap, but just can't live with the rust, just hit it with a rust encapsulator. It won't do anything to stop the worst of the rot (it's too far gone for that), but it will make it look better for a couple of years.

If it's pier & beam, then that perimeter footing (spread footing) should probably have been 6" - 12" deep. The absolute maximum required would likely have been 16", but that's for a 3 story building.

Getting the rest of the way under the footing is probably the easy part. Just a bit more digging... But then what? Climb into the crawl space and hand dig from there?

Where in the house is the main shutoff access? Is it right behind the exterior wall shown at the end of the trench? It may be sensible to just come up along the wall and punch a hole through the veneer.

I generally work with Home Depot for larger orders, so this applies to them, but most big box stores probably have similar programs. 

Go to the Pro Desk (usually over by Lumber). Find somebody you like to work with and ask them for their Email. Anytime you need something, shoot that person an email.

Most people don't know that if you're spending a couple grand+, you can request a bulk order discount. I usually get part numbers off the website and email a spreadsheet. They put it into an invoice and send it for a discount request. It has saved me upwards of 20% on certain items. 

NEC really only specifies that your electrical cable must have it's own support. It can't be in contact with any sharp edges, but there's nothing prohibiting it from touching a pipe. 

Nothing in your pictures looks unsafe or problematic. It's actually quite common. The cable is supported by the romex staples, so I'd say you're good.

At $20,000 / year, some small banks/CUs may even be classifying you as low income and reduce their DTI allowance. Like @Steve L. said, you're well over the standard DTI threshold with another $750/mo debt.

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau explains DTI here. This keeps banks pretty strict on DTI requirements.

Maybe a non-conventional loan may make more sense for you? 

@Michael Maloney Jr., if you choose the installment loan, you'll have a check for exactly $10,000 to work with. If you go over budget, you'll have to come up with the money some other way. 30 years on $10k seems like a typo, but those 2 would also be drastically different monthly payments. 

If the house appraises at $190k before a $10k cost to cure, an 80% LTV HELOC would offer you a line of up to $22k. This would give you a nice buffer. With those rates, it seems you may have some blips on your credit. Maybe you could use the rest of the available line to help clean those up as well?

Taking a lower variable rate now with intent to pay it off within the next year would probably be sensible. It's very unlikely that we'll see rates push up a full point in that time frame, so it should save you a bit of interest.

My vote, take the Line of Credit.

FTC has a Guide specific to landlords and credit reports here. It's old, but still applicable.

They even have a simple, downloadable guide here.

The verbiage on compliance is:

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Non-Compliance with the FCRA

Landlords who fail to provide required disclosure notices face legal consequences. The FCRA allows individuals to sue landlords for damages in federal court. A person who successfully sues is entitled to recover court costs and reasonable legal fees. The law also allows individuals to seek punitive damages for deliberate violations of the FCRA. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), other federal agencies and the states may sue landlords for non-compliance and get civil penalties.

However, a landlord who inadvertently fails to provide a required notice in an isolated case has legal protections, so long as he or she can demonstrate "that at the time of the . . . violation he maintained reasonable procedures to assure compliance" with the FCRA.

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@Steve Babiak, it is pretty unlikely that the CFPB would target landlords, but if a sharp consumer were to file a complaint, they may pursue. Since the law does allow punitive damages and court costs, a snaky lawyer may even jump in their corner. If you utter the word "Credit" to a consumer, I'd take a couple minutes to stay compliant.

It's pretty simple to stay compliant. Just generate the letter from any of the online templates, make a copy and mail it out. Throw the copy in a file (or scan it and upload it to the cloud) along with a couple notes of why you declined and when you mailed the letter.  This covers the whole - “that at the time of the . . . violation he maintained reasonable procedures to assure compliance” - part.

I'd personally use this template because it's well, formatted, complete and has easy to use check boxes.

My Credit Union does up to 90% LTV, 30 year fixed for 3.875%. Sofi just offered me just under 3.5, but I think that was a 15 or 20 year - $100k min. I've found Sofi to be pretty easy to work with, FWIW.

Chase has 3.75 with .625 points listed right now. 

In retail finance, 2 year of complete tax returns is pretty standard VOI for self employed. Non-conforming lenders will sometimes demand an Income Statement if (like your situation), it's pushing year end or last years returns are not prepared. 

An Income Statement isn't all telling, but should at least clue you in on if they're running in the black or not. It's a better metric than a bank statement, IMO. Of course, he could just produce a fake P&L. You could ask for a certified income statement, but that may just make him find a different house to rent.

How's his credit?

Unless the check happened in a different period and you've already submitted financials to a 3rd party, I'd skip the J/E and just go back to the check and change the account to an expense as @Account Closed said. QB lets you add the new account on the fly from the Write Checks window.