If Dani is following this thread still, do be aware of assembly bill 968 and how it affects do it yourself flips. 

If the landlord has three bills and they show a significant drop in use around the time the home froze, that would indicate the heat wasn't being used.

Very poor credit.Truth is many gurus will say its easy to get HML, but if you have poor credit and a history of not being able to pay bills, why would a lender give someone money who already cannot pay bills and has zero real estate experience and zero money funds to do something they never did before and expect it to be successful?

@Bill Hamptonthanks for pointing out these resources!

Quote from @Bill Hampton: @Miguelli FernandezBased on interest tracing rules, the Heloc/Heloan interest would be a deductible expense against rental income. 

Quote from @Calvin Thomas: Quote from @Bill Schrimpf: Quote from @Calvin Thomas: Quote from @Erik Browning: Pro's: It's great to have BP as a trustworthy partner to give clients a level of trust that they will be taken care of.

That being said, I don't think the bank is going to be sending folks to peep through your window to confirm you live there... but you obviously still shouldn't do anything misleading, hypothetical or not :) If you have utilities or some bills in your name headed to that address, that would adequately show a proof of residence to some capacity. 

I mean you could make offers and if you are in the market and they aren't you can always file complaints, (only legit ones) with the city, to keep it on their radar and make it a squeeky wheel for the current owner, but yeah i'm not really a fan of bailing out people in any industry who make mistakes, so by all means by the properties but not your or anyone else's problem that they made the errors they did.  

Then we pay our bills out of it.

Miss by a day and you are paying a hefty tax bill (income taxes plus early withdraw penalty if you are younger than 59.5 years old).