That said I got inside and the house is destroyed and I suspect will go for about $450,000.

Will she destroy the house once she finds out that her rent free living arrangement is over?

@Jackson SandlandI like to know for a couple reasons- I would typically charge an investor a little less as to make them a long term client and establish a relationship, if it’s a primary residence- do I have to deal with a pet, do I have to make sure I clean up every day, can I work longer hours/weekends if need be etc And the quality of materials and final product are usually a better quality when it’s your primary rather than a rental that could get destroyed in a month..

By leaving these areas saturated, any wood structure or metal framing is subject to deterioration, and, depending on your locale, will also attract wood destroying insects.IF your rental agreement addresses responsibility for the lawn care, AND, again, you have proof of the damage in the form of "move in condition" documents and photos, I would insist that be restored prior to them vacating.

Today it would have been worth about 4 times what I sold it for and would have been a great STR.. however sometime after I sold the wildfires destroyed a lot of homes and this was one of them. 

Now let's pretend your tenant stopped paying rent, put some holes in the wall and destroyed the carpet.

My house could be destroyed by then. 

We said you didn't need it, so there's a good thing there's no payment for it.But, should something come up, be it an investment opportunity, or an emergency beyond how liquid you normally stay, your kitchen just got destroyed but the insurance claim is going to take 2-3 months and your kids are hungry tonight, tenant destroyed the place and you want to turn it over as fast as possible, etc, you can click your mouse 3 times and dump $100k into your checking account, or $20k, or whatever, and only pay interest on the amount you use.Another good use-case for a HELOC is when/if you're about to disqualify yourself from getting a normal 1st position Fannie type loan.In almost all cases where someone is sitting on a bunch of equity, they should at least have a HELOC.

If someone is too greedy and stupid, they belong in jail or destroyed in business, but.... it's not all about them, it's also about the 3,12, 25 or 100 people in the public that that screw up, cheat, hurt or ruin doing unethical or illegal things they learn here or from some low life guru.It's just out of frustration.

Wood destroying (termites, powder post beetles, acrobat ants, carpenter ants, etc) can wreck havoc and add up to costly structural work and other expensive stuff.