They have a report bills to credit angle.What will happen is that instead of you paying your bills directly, you pay tomo and they pay your bills and depending on how much you decide to pay them monthly they will report 1000 - 10000 in a type of credit line to credit reporting bureaus.There are a lot of these report bills to credit services available these days and most cost less than Tomo...Tomo Boost is the only one I mention because they can back up to 24 months... so if you've paying your cell, or Netflix or Electric Bill... literally any bill... they can back date up to 24 months.So... if you do both Tomo and Rent Reporters... inside of 30 Days you would have 2 accounts over 2 years old and your credit would be in a much better position for applying for a mortgageOne other thing that is worth mentioning is that INCOME is MUCH more important than credit when applying for a mortgage.

Much of lower Manhattan went for almost 2 weeks without electricity, heat etc.

As @Charles Carillo said, you can make the most of that time, but most people just waste the 4-5 years and then end up doing something unrelated to their degree field anyway.Maybe look into a Trade School, like an electrical one....nice clean work that pays really well.

How much concern should I have about the bed bug and dog situation?

Get full year electric bill4.  

Verbally, another told me it would be $12K per year to insure unless HVAC, plumbing, electrical and roof were all updated recently.

The high rate of electric vehicle charging installation and solar installations are making these kinds of electrical parts hard to find. 

However, you are looking at separate electric and water metering, maybe gas too?

Progress is slow, because amongst all my properties it's the furthest away and between a full time job and landlording, I can only work on this property on weekends.I have completed re-framing, re-plumbing of drains and supply lines and new electrical rough ins, but property has no finished walls, ceilings, or flooring. 

My actual room is littered with dead bugs, and instead of a carpet that shows in the pictures, there's veneer wood flooring, which no one notified me about, and there are no updated pictures for.