[quote=bearishgurl]I wouldn’t throw away thousands per month on rent[/quote] Actually, the recent experience has been of people throwing up to 100s of thousands of dollars on mortgage and lost equity.

[quote=bearishgurl]STAY AWAY from owners behind in their payments.[/quote]Good advice. What I did was to check with the county registrar/recorder office to make sure the property had no unusual liens or notices of default.