I wanted to let the board know the decision we made. This was concerning the house that we had picked options for 2 1/2 years ago. The house is in forclosure and we had an offer accepted at 450K. I described it as a beautiful home on a 1/3 acre with unobstructed views of the Santa Rosa Plateau. The home sold for 690k 2 years ago.

The two issues that we struggled with were the property taxes 9 k. This is down from 14.4 which is the origional reason we backed out of the deal 2 1/2 years go. The other issue was the cost involved to obtain a reasonable payment without PMI. We would have needed to put down about 100 k. The reality is that I’m not ready to cash in other investments and put everything into the real estate basket.

The most important reason for not going through with the purchase occurred after talking our landlord. We ( wife and 4 kids) have been bounced around 2 out of the past two years. I knew our lease was expiring in Feb. and needless to say I get a little anxious around this time. The reason I even considered a purchase at this time was because I didnt think the family could sustain another forced move into a rental.

After talking to the landlord he agreed to allowing us to stay on a month to month basis. We had prenegotiated a $100 increase at the beginning of the second year.I explained at some point we would be purchasing and would not accept a longer term lease. Because one of the previous homes we lived in was forclosed on the financial stability of the owner is important. I’m confident that our owner is a well capitalized owner and there is a very small chance of forclosure. He explained that some other tenants of his have lived in one of his properties for 10 years.

With all this in mind we decided to stay put and not to pursue the purchase at this time. However, if the price drops another 50 k it would be hard to resist. Thank you all for your input!