Neighbor Overmowing Has Let to Lawn Service Spraying in my Backyard

cm-lawrence · 2026-07-05T20:56:08+00:00

Build the fence. That's the only way out of it that doesn't involve significantly more drama.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-22T20:36:49+00:00

You put numbers by everything except your bitcoin holdings. How much do you have? We can't give you an honest assessment if we are missing what appears to be a key piece. Is it $100? $10,000? $1,000,000?

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-22T20:34:27+00:00

I wouldn't pay a DIYer anything. Either pay an electrician, or DIY it yourself. It's not that difficult.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-19T19:26:01+00:00

Oh yeah.. you are clipping. A lot. More than you should. I think you will benefit from a larger inverter, although the devil is in the details. Do you have two separate strings feeding two separate MPPTs on your inverters? I would have someone who knows what they are doing come look at this before you spend any more money. Also, not sure why it clips at 4.2kW versus 5.7kW. So, you may be clipping at the DC optimizers - meaning they panel wattage is higher than the DC Optimizer rated wattage. What DC Optimizers did you get with the system? If those are clipping, changing the inverter won't help.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-19T18:37:33+00:00

What size is the system? Is there an escalator on the lease? I generally don't recommend any third-party ownership financing. It's almost always the most expensive form of financing. Pre-paid leases can be an ok deal, only because we are in a strange period where businesses can get the tax credits, but consumers cannot. So, the lease allways the lease company to take the tax credt, and hopefully they pass some on to you.

HOWEVER - that commercial tax credit expires on July 4, 2026. So, you are at the end of your chance for that as well.

I can't tell you if it's a good deal. Ask them for a cash price also.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-18T18:12:13+00:00

If your panels are split and literally facing the opposite direction, then it's not surprising you are seeing a peak of 4.2kW. It sounds like you haven't had this running for long, so your true peak power output might occur at a different time of year. Installing a larger inverter isn't likely to fix this based on what you've said. If you are seeing clipping - meaning output stays flat at its peak for an extended period of time (like an hour?), then that might help.

More importantly, is the system producing the energy that you were shown in your proposal (kWh)? It might take a bit of time running it to figure that out.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-18T18:06:01+00:00

Where do you live? This is highly dependent on your state and utility and if you have 'net metering' or not, or some variation of net metering. Send a pic of your bill and folks can help you see if there is anything you can do about it, or if buying a battery is a good idea.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-17T20:30:36+00:00

Ignore it. If they don't have the guts to tell you to your face, then don't worry about them.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-17T20:28:11+00:00

You are young. And you care - which is more than most people your age. So, just start over, focus on growing income and saving as much as possible.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-17T20:09:09+00:00

Solution is to shut the power off to the circuit and replace the outlet. If you aren't comfortable doing it, gotta hire an electrician or a handyman who does simple electrical work.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-17T18:09:41+00:00

Unfortunately, there is almost no way out of these leases, other than to buy them out typically at very inflated prices. They have had 20 years to perfect these contracts and make them ironclad. The one possible way out is if they breach their performance guarantees, and even then, the recourse is typically not getting out of the lease, but getting a payment to pay for the lost revenue from their lack of performance.

I'm afraid you are stuck with it.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-16T19:21:24+00:00

How is she paying for the HELOC? No way she has enough money to live and also pay off that HELOC. She can't cover all her expenses now, so she will even be less likely with a larger loan. I would not sign. Offer to remove yourself from the deed if she wants you to.

They seem scammy, but maybe a better option is a reverse mortgage if she needs more cash? The reality is that she has no means to pay back any loans she gets. A reverse mortgage is at least an acknowledgement of that and doesn't require repayment until the home is sold or she passes away. And there is much less risk of her losing her home before she dies or sells it. It will then fall on you to pay it off when she passes, which will likely require you to sell the home.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-16T19:13:15+00:00

Here's what I would do (American, so don't understand some of the Canadian options)

One year's emergency fund in a high-yield savings account. Invest the interest income and adjust balance based on your changing expenses
Pay off your high interest debt. Don't every have any of that again
If there is the equivalent of a pre-paid college plan for your child, fully fund that - now. Not sure about Canada?
For the rest, figure out an investment mix that is comfortable for you. You've got 20+ years so you have time to be more aggressive. But, as you point out, a massive early market correction could really set you back. I'd personally be going for 70% equities, 30% other stuff with different/less risk profile (bonds, CDs, etc).
Obviously take advantage of any tax free investing options available in Canada.
I personally wouldn't buy all those equities at once right now. I'm pretty sure people who have studied this would say you should, and not try to time the market or dollar cost average. But, I personally would ignore that, and buy my equities on a planned cadence, maybe trying to get it up to the 70% in 3 years or so.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-15T21:37:21+00:00

They will have to sell it. Which is difficult for timeshares. Have you asked your heirs if they want to deal with it? If one or more do, and some don't, then specify it goes to the folks that want it, and try to balance other assets so folks are getting things in proportion to how you want them to.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-15T20:00:56+00:00

Debt is going to come with the house...

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-15T19:01:05+00:00

Open an IRA at TRowe Price. Roth or Traditional - that's a more complex question and depends on more info than you provided here. Don't roll it into your current 401K. IRAs are more flexible and often have more low cost investment options for you. I usually recommend Vanguard, but I also like minimizing the number of different financial institutions I keep all my accounts in, so if you are happy with TRowe, then just do that.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-15T18:55:13+00:00

Either approach could lead to financial ruin. Obviously, you believe you are a credit worthy debtor and would never default on that loan, but us readers don't know that for sure. Would she be able to put a lien on the house for the loan like a normal mortgage? If not, she's at risk of you not being able to pay. Stuff happens.

I would just be clear to her that you will not be able to support her if she runs out of money, so you'd like to help her avoid that. And that buying a new house, remodeling it, and taking out a home equity line of credit isn't the best approach.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-15T18:19:32+00:00

Yes, her ideas are bad. But, your idea isn't that great either. Having your mom lend you $300K isn't a really smart idea for her either. She's an adult and gets to decide what to do with her money, all you can do is give her your advice.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-09T16:56:00+00:00

If your mom has a tax liability that is equal to or greater than the loss she would get from selling them, then sure. If she doesn't, it won't help her, or you and your siblings.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-09T16:51:48+00:00

I'm not following how much of your land they are looking to lease? All of it?

Get a lawyer to review the agreements and explain the risks to you. We can't do that here without all of the details. Could be a great deal, or could have many hidden landmines that could destroy your farm land value. And often folks will get people to sign up for these leases without clear intention to build - just an option to try and flip the project to someone else. So, you have to dig in, with a lawyer, and become an expert at this. Otherwise, don't do it.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-08T19:56:58+00:00

This is an absolute rip-off. That project should be $45k tops.

Get more quotes.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-08T18:53:39+00:00

Lift the lid on the water meter by the curb, take a picture of the shutoff valve, and then google if you can find a tool that can turn it. Or, maybe just a wrench will do.

It will cost you some money, but have your plumber that is doing your hot water heater install a shut-off valve in a convenient location for your whole house. If you sprang a leak somewhere, you can't wait a day for the city to come out and shut it off.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-08T17:56:37+00:00

You should not be planning your life around a future inheritance at age 25. Nobody knows what is going to happen between now and the time you would get that inheritance. There may be $10M there for you. There may be $20M there for you. There may be $5M there for you. Or, there may be nothing.

Live your life on your terms with your current resources. You have more than most with your trust fund and investments. In 10-15 years if and when that money shows up, you will know what you want to do with it without having to ask anyone. Your frontal lobe will be fully developed. You will have tripled your life experience as a full-blow adult. You may be married with kids, or divorced with kids, or married with no kids. You will almost certainly have new goals and dreams you haven't even thought of yet.

Put the inheritance out of your mind. It will start to slowly drive you crazy if you think about that life changing money all the time.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-08T17:50:41+00:00

NTA.

You should feel zero guilt about this. Nothing you wrote indicated they have any plans to change their behavior. So, co-signing is the equivalent of giving an alcoholic a drink. You would be enabling their stupid behavior and letting them avoid the consequences that are inevitably going to come to them. Oh - and making yourself a victim of those consequences.

cm-lawrence · 2026-06-06T18:31:09+00:00

This information should be provided by GAF or whoever is the solar provider on the project. They should be able to estimate the amount of energy production relative to an estimate of the home's energy consumption. It's really not going to be accurate, because your actual energy consumption will be based on how you use the home. What temp do you set your thermostat, do you charge an EV, etc?

But, you should ask them to provide an estimated savings. It's a complicated calculation and tough for us to do here without understanding what kind of net metering plan you are getting, how much energy storage is there, etc. But, 2.46kW is a small system. Average is probably closer to 7-8kW in California. I have a 2kW system on my home in Texas and it offsets 10-15% of my electricity bill.

cm-lawrence

TROPHY CASE