I had a few rentals that I owned with a partner (just sold) and do occasional mailings for cash purchases.

Several in the thread have pointed out that they didn't think the romex alone could be causing the problem, but my (admittedly uneducated) guess of what is happening is that the line has already degraded and is exposed to the earth, and occasional moisture which is causing the issues.I contacted the sellers construction manager today (he did some other work on our punch list and was an all around good guy), and waiting to hear back from them.

She said her boy friend came over 'occasionally'. 

But dang straight she was right there on closing day to pick up her commission check.So my point in all that (again I am not trying to say all brokers are idiots or anything like that) but just that sometimes the brokers can and will get offended by certain offers that you try to submit, but I feel it is not the brokers job to get involved in that part of the deal, they are hired to help the seller present his/her property in the best possible “light” so to speak in an effort to attempt to get the best possible price for the property and occasionally do a few necessities on the seller’s behalf (such as smoke cert., little things like that) and on the buyers side they are hired to find the properties that fit within the buyers parameters and help them arrange viewing and putting in offers (and occasionally they too will help with little things here and there like helping get HO ins., lining up the inspection, etc.).

I don't know where your home is located, but in my experience many of my clients only move here with one car shared by the family - almost anywhere you are in Montclair, public transportation is nearby, so I think you'll be ok finding the right tenant.Wish you the best of luck in resolving the issue and hope you stick with the real estate investing - the occasional headaches are always worth it!

Guests at my location typically have 2-3 cars which is less than my family would have if we were living there every day as opposed to only having guests over an occasional weekend.

I’ll ask you this, if someone offers you to work every saturday at $30/hr for 8 hrs, and there is one who pays you $350 for 8 hrs on occasional saturdays meaning it is a hit and miss every saturday, which one will you pick?

Perhaps the employees and an occasional customer might use the service. 

I'm buying distressed foreclosures in north nj, fixing and renting, with an occasional flip.

With an AHS warranty, for the most part you'll have a steady premium, then the occasional extra $75-$100 service call fee to fix issues (except the above A/C example), instead of the potential unexpected replacement of appliances which can cost more in a given month/year, but over the course of several years will likely work out cheaper.