FranLab is getting evicted

[AccountRemovedPerUsersRequest]

I used to be Fran's frequent supporter. I even sent some extra when se asked for help last time she had to move. After that she decided to include "rainbow message" as part of her channel and I stopped supporting and unsubscribed.
Well... I was a frequent supporter for Dave too but after he stated I must be stupid bringing facts on the table, I stopped that too...

But I hope Fran gets all sorted out. What ever it takes.

A

[alexnoot]

After that she decided to include "rainbow message" as part of her channel and I stopped supporting and unsubscribed.

That says more about you than her...

[james_s]

She is, but I believe her reasoning is basically better the devil you know in Philly.
Unfortunately this thinking has her trapped in Philly.

Well you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. This pretty much just reaffirms my previous thought that this whole thing is futile and is just going to keep repeating. It's a waste of time and effort trying to help someone who has set up rigid constraints that virtually ensure failure. Within the constraints set the possible options I see are come up with a massive amount of money out of thin air, or find some other affordable place to rent again and get evicted again in a year or two when the building is sold to redevelop.

The harsh reality is that unless you own the property, it is simply not always possible to continue living in the same area forever. The area I have lived in most of my life used to be a sleepy little agricultural area that was affordable, now it's an expensive suburb with a median house price of $1.1M. If I hadn't bought my house years ago there is no way I could afford to keep living here, renting even a dumpy house today would cost way more than my mortgage payment. That's just life.

[AccountRemovedPerUsersRequest]

After that she decided to include "rainbow message" as part of her channel and I stopped supporting and unsubscribed.

That says more about you than her...

You got that right because I just wrote what I did. Point of your comment was... what exactly?

On second though I did support Dave recently...

A

[NivagSwerdna]

2018 GoFundMe raised $44K and then the recent Zero-G $12K so it might be possible to survive based on GoFundMe's but it really doesn't look sustainable. 

However FranLab YT channel subscribership has doubled in the last few years so there are the same number of new supporters as old ones...

So maybe another GoFundMe would work.

I would recommend selling stuff to raise some cash... there must be lots of interesting bits of stuff that could be flogged off to raise cash... and you cannot take it with you. 

(I'm considering reducing my hoard so my executors don't have to sell or dump it)

[Kasper]

Speaking of rentals in Philly, there's a channel on youtube, 'Airbnb Automated' where Sean explains how to do rental arbitrage: rent homes and then host them as STRs (short term rentals).  Sounds like he has lots of places in Philly and is considering getting out of some.  Maybe he can help Fran find something, maybe in return for Fran making him some security devices.

In this video, Sean mentions regulations in Philly are changing on Apr 1, 2022.  That may make it harder to host STRs which could bring some extra long term rentals to the market soon.

I've sent that to Fran.

Funny timing, Sean just posted a video about how he's taking on more rentals in Philly   Says new regs might push out smaller hosts but it's not such a problem for bigger ones.

[BrokenYugo]

While I understand her reasoning and agree that country or small town is probably a bad option, I don't think what she wants really exists anymore. There are other cheap (relatively speaking these days) LGBT friendly cities, but that sort of big cheap residential rental property she's after (if I'm understanding correctly) just isn't around anymore. Even Detroit and outlying cheap friendly areas (Ferndale comes to mind) are getting expensive, rebuilt/remodeled, and gentrified in a hurry, and has been for a decade.

She's going to have to figure out some way to buy something eventually (shell corp to make her income look more bank respected?), and/or learn to operate out of a house, owned or rented. You just can't go out and get a cheap loft or bigass historical apartment anymore, they were a product of history, and now are becoming history themselves. It sucks, but it is what it is. 

[WattsThat]

IMO, there are people around us that will make choices that we view as foolish, impracticable or worse. We can only express our views in a respectful way and then let it go. It does not matter if we believe the behavior is misguided, misinformed or result in a worse outcome had they made a different decision. So long as they will not be physically harmed, or harm themselves as a result of their decisions, there is little to nothing we can realistically do.

So long as people continue to support her financially, she’s free to do whatever it is that she desires. Should that funding dry up, then she might be forced to re-think her approach but until something changes, I sincerely doubt anyone is going to change her desired path, regardless how unobtainable it may appear to us to be.

Someone dropping support is not wanting to support the behavior. At some point, you make the decision that you cannot or should not continue to be an enabler. Anyone with problematic family member understands this all too well.

[Ed.Kloonk]

Myself and most of my friends live out in the sticks, we'd all welcome her.

That's the vibe here also. Fran might even enjoy the banjo music.

[Bassman59]

There's another example where rules vary a bit globally--and even from state to state in the US.  All of that would be incorrect in a US context.  High but unused credit lines are almost always a help, not a hindrance in obtaining credit.

The thing is they will usually refuse to acknowledge that you have a long track history of paying off the credit card on time every month. You are actually better off having a debit card. And in fact we have just ditched our credit card in favour of a debit card for this very reason, it's one less thing they can hold against you when you apply for a loan.

No, I lived in the US for many years, having credit & using it to maintain a credit history was vital to getting a loan, renting an apartment, or buying a house.

Black Sheep is correct. I'm in the US. The whole credit-rating thing is completely weird and non-obvious. Having a large amount of "available credit" is considered a Good Thing by the data-miners like TransUnion. They like when you have "long term credit." That is: a credit card you got 20 years ago and you pay in full each month is excellent.

They don't like high usage-to-available-credit ratios. That is: if you have $10,000 available credit and you carry a balance of $5,000 a month, that's bad -- even if you pay the balance in full every month and never incur interest charges.

The hilarious thing is that it's actually quite easily for an adult to have $50,000 or more in available credit-card credit. If you carry a $5,000 monthly balance and pay it in full each month, then your usage ratio is low even though the balance might seem high and they like that.

So here in the US credit card usage history is one of the most significant parts of your "Credit Score" © ® ™ . Never cancel a credit card or close the account as that counts against you in the "time since opening the account" category. Just don't use the card. Put it in a drawer. Make a charge at a candy machine with the card once a year to keep the account active.

The absurdity: if you don't have credit cards you don't have a "credit usage history" and the dataminers use that against you. You're not credit worthy because you have never needed credit.

(I won't even get into how landlords and even employers will pull a credit report on potential lessees/hires. That's pure evil.)


On the gripping hand, all of the credit card issuers want your business because they want the swipe fees. They are willing to give "cash back" rebates on purchases. Of course those rebates come right out of the swipe fees merchants pay, and that comes right out of your pocket as the merchants add the cost of the swipe fees to the selling price of whatever you're buying. The point is that if you are disciplined enough to control your spending and ensure you pay balances in full each month, there's no benefit to paying in cash or with a debit card.

Credit-card issuers add more gravy on top -- extended warranties for purchases, insurance for rental cars, and of course the big one, which is the ability to start a charge back if a vendor is problematic.

As for debit cards linked to a checking or savings account: NEVER EVER EVER use them for purchases at point of sale in a store or online. EVER. Why? Because if the card is compromised, the Bad Guy can wipe out your checking account before you know it. Eventually you'll be made whole by the bank, but what happens if the account is cleared out then your mortgage payment hits? Bounce city, a mess to clear up, and guess what? Bouncing a mortgage payment is a nice big ding on your credit history.

anyway.

[Bassman59]

In the case of a debit card, your bank account could be empty (or overdrawn) immediately, which is a much more serious issue and potentially a lot more hassle to deal with.

No. There are daily withdrawal limits you can set to minimize the damage. Many banks have quite low defaults so the damage is minimal. On top of that, unintentional withdrawels by criminals are covered by the banks.

I should check with my credit union to see what kind of limits they put on debit card usage. But the Bad Guy won't try to charge $5,000 worth of stuff on a debit card. They'll do hundreds of dollars at different merchants, all of which are under any "limit" but aggregate to wiping out your account balance before the bank catches up.

But that said, banks are getting good at catching fraud and they'll usually halt "strange" charges.

Over here most regular shops don't even accept credit cards. Credit card companies do charge a high commision which in the end needs to be paid somehow by the consumers.

Yes, the swipe fees ultimately get paid for by the consumer in the form of higher prices, but the reality is that at last here in the US the tide has shifted well in favor of electronic payments over cash. Any business that wants to do cash only won't stay in business for very long. Maybe bars and restaurants but other than that, forget it. Hell, a friend and I had lunch at one of the great local joints last week, first time since COVID, and I went to the cash machine because that restaurant was cash-only. I was surprised to see that they accepted credit cards and Apple Pay.

I'm not at all in favor of the trend to no-cash businesses because too many people do not have credit cards.

[langwadt]

In the case of a debit card, your bank account could be empty (or overdrawn) immediately, which is a much more serious issue and potentially a lot more hassle to deal with.

No. There are daily withdrawal limits you can set to minimize the damage. Many banks have quite low defaults so the damage is minimal. On top of that, unintentional withdrawels by criminals are covered by the banks.

I should check with my credit union to see what kind of limits they put on debit card usage. But the Bad Guy won't try to charge $5,000 worth of stuff on a debit card. They'll do hundreds of dollars at different merchants, all of which are under any "limit" but aggregate to wiping out your account balance before the bank catches up.

But that said, banks are getting good at catching fraud and they'll usually halt "strange" charges.

Over here most regular shops don't even accept credit cards. Credit card companies do charge a high commision which in the end needs to be paid somehow by the consumers.

Yes, the swipe fees ultimately get paid for by the consumer in the form of higher prices, but the reality is that at last here in the US the tide has shifted well in favor of electronic payments over cash. Any business that wants to do cash only won't stay in business for very long. Maybe bars and restaurants but other than that, forget it. Hell, a friend and I had lunch at one of the great local joints last week, first time since COVID, and I went to the cash machine because that restaurant was cash-only. I was surprised to see that they accepted credit cards and Apple Pay.

I'm not at all in favor of the trend to no-cash businesses because too many people do not have credit cards.

here no cash is not allowed

[james_s]

Black Sheep is correct. I'm in the US. The whole credit-rating thing is completely weird and non-obvious. Having a large amount of "available credit" is considered a Good Thing by the data-miners like TransUnion. They like when you have "long term credit." That is: a credit card you got 20 years ago and you pay in full each month is excellent.

They don't like high usage-to-available-credit ratios. That is: if you have $10,000 available credit and you carry a balance of $5,000 a month, that's bad -- even if you pay the balance in full every month and never incur interest charges.

The hilarious thing is that it's actually quite easily for an adult to have $50,000 or more in available credit-card credit. If you carry a $5,000 monthly balance and pay it in full each month, then your usage ratio is low even though the balance might seem high and they like that.

I think it makes perfect sense and don't find it particularly weird although it can seem unfair it is all based on statistical data. Somebody who has a significant amount of credit available but doesn't max it out and carry a huge debt suggests that they are financially responsible. Lenders want to loan money to people that have a history of paying back money that they borrow. If someone hasn't borrowed anything and have no history then they're an unknown so naturally that will count against them. If they have a bunch of cards that are maxed out all the time they probably aren't very good at paying back what they borrow, so naturally that will count against them. It isn't really very hard to build a good credit rating, all I did was sign up for a credit card when I was 18 that I used to mail order stuff and I paid it off each month. I used it to buy groceries and gas for my car, relatively small amounts and never carried a balance, pretty soon I had a good credit score because I deliberately did what I knew would result in that.

I don't even know what my credit limit is anymore, they kept raising it despite the fact that I never hit it and never asked for it to be raised, I stopped paying attention when it got to $15k. I've never charged more than $4500 and I paid that off in full the same month.

[Ed.Kloonk]

I don't even know what my credit limit is anymore, they kept raising it despite the fact that I never hit it and never asked for it to be raised, I stopped paying attention when it got to $15k. I've never charged more than $4500 and I paid that off in full the same month.

You're exactly the type of customer the credit card company hates. 

[james_s]

While I understand her reasoning and agree that country or small town is probably a bad option, I don't think what she wants really exists anymore. There are other cheap (relatively speaking these days) LGBT friendly cities, but that sort of big cheap residential rental property she's after (if I'm understanding correctly) just isn't around anymore. Even Detroit and outlying cheap friendly areas (Ferndale comes to mind) are getting expensive, rebuilt/remodeled, and gentrified in a hurry, and has been for a decade.

That's because there are investors, both companies and individuals that are actively scouting out these sort of properties so they can snap them up, renovate them or redevelop the land and make a huge profit. They have cash on hand and can make a compelling offer for a quick sale and this has been exacerbated by the well meaning but poorly thought out eviction moratoriums that effectively encourage landlords who have problem tenants or worry that they might to sell their properties because that is an easy way to bypass the moratorium and evict the tenants. The circumstances that exist virtually ensure the pattern will continue to repeat, if she does manage to find another similar space it is only a matter of time before an investment group finds that same property and makes the owner an offer they can't refuse.

[james_s]

You're exactly the type of customer the credit card company hates. 

I'm well aware of this, and I give exactly zero shits. I often round up to the nearest dollar when I pay the bill resulting in carrying a small positive balance on the card most of the time just because it amuses me to see the angry looking bold red numbers on the statement. I have no qualms whatsoever about exploiting the services they offer, they may hate me, but that doesn't stop them from sending me offers for other credit cards.

[EEVblog]

Well... I was a frequent supporter for Dave too but after he stated I must be stupid bringing facts on the table, I stopped that too...

Care to elaborate?

[EEVblog]

Within the constraints set the possible options I see are come up with a massive amount of money out of thin air, or find some other affordable place to rent again and get evicted again in a year or two when the building is sold to redevelop.

Yes, that is sadly the almost guaranteed outcome I'm afraid.
She might have to consider a regular apartment of some sort, like 2 or 3 bedroom and convert the other bedroom(s) into lab space.
Adequate for electronics work, but pretty crap for other bigger and messier stuff she does.
But the good thing about youtube is that she could pivot to entirely electronics and other small stuff for content and still keep the channel going, while the other stuff goes in storage.
Not ideal, but certainly better than the channel folding, which I don't think can actually happen.

[EEVblog]

2018 GoFundMe raised $44K and then the recent Zero-G $12K so it might be possible to survive based on GoFundMe's but it really doesn't look sustainable. 
However FranLab YT channel subscribership has doubled in the last few years so there are the same number of new supporters as old ones...
So maybe another GoFundMe would work.

At a minimum I'd say she'd be lucky to find another place of the same size and rent in the next two months considering how hard it was to find the current one.
IIRC the $44k last time (minus taxes) was barely enough to sustain her, so it'll likely be similar again.

I would recommend selling stuff to raise some cash... there must be lots of interesting bits of stuff that could be flogged off to raise cash... and you cannot take it with you. 

It actually takes a lot of time and effort to sell stuff, and I suspect it will be pretty much a full time job to find a new space at this point.

[mikeselectricstuff]

As many businesses are looking at downsizing their property due to making at least some work-at-home permanent, an option may be to find a friendly local business that is prepared to sub-let some of their space.

[EEVblog]

As many businesses are looking at downsizing their property due to making at least some work-at-home permanent, an option may be to find a friendly local business that is prepared to sub-let some of their space.

Worth looking at.
One potential problem is that it's her home and lab, so I presume that rules out generic office space.

[AccountRemovedPerUsersRequest]

Well... I was a frequent supporter for Dave too but after he stated I must be stupid bringing facts on the table, I stopped that too...

Care to elaborate?

I rather not to open that box again since the topic was closed quite some ago. It was not the best moments for the community. IMHO.

A

[sokoloff]

I don't even know what my credit limit is anymore, they kept raising it despite the fact that I never hit it and never asked for it to be raised, I stopped paying attention when it got to $15k. I've never charged more than $4500 and I paid that off in full the same month.

You're exactly the type of customer the credit card company hates. 

They still bank the merchant fees (typically 1.5-3%) and then pay you out your rewards (typically 0.5-1.5%), but importantly, you spend money that encourages/forces merchants to keep accepting their credit card.

They don't love you as much as the people paying 18% on $10K forever, but they don't hate you.

[Nusa]

Emergency over:

[EEVblog]

 

Really surprised she found something so quickly, it didn't sound good for a while.