But, I think you will be essentially alone in the world of real estate investors if you buy your first small property inside of a C-Corp attempting to maximize fringe benefits, rather than appreciation and cash flow. 

Well, a private lender can essentially quote any rate they want - it's their money. 

Cashing out equity is essentially borrowing money so you can borrow money.

Although I agree with a lot of what has been stated above about making sure this gets paid ASAP, based upon what I've seen in this arena I would just make certain that notice of the claim has been properly given under the policy and then let the insurer deal with it.Making payments (essentially settling on behalf of the insurer) and assuming they will be covered and reimbursed in full carries some risk and may actually conflict with the terms of the policy... give us timely notice; let us fix, defend or pay; cooperate, etc. 

If so, I would go for that and then start in the STR space with the safety net cash flowing long-term potential.

It essentially pulls power from the unit that is not currently functioning.

The only time you may get cited is for safety violations.

The first one said he was going to email me last Thursday with a bid - haven't heard from him yet, so he is out of the question.The second one I met at the job site and he essentially said he wasn't interested in the job.

(They are essentially duplicates of the same house.)

The 100 dollar misc fee was a safety expense in case I noticed the yard wasn’t being taken care of.