The only hope for keeping the Portland house is a gamble on equity and rising home prices.

I actually like the thrill of the hunt, I'm a deal junkie.

Tenant may not be thrilled but at least they can't say you are not fulfilling your agreement.

I mean not only is it a gamble to not fix right away but it also tarnishes your reputation as well.

Both of the tenants have aspects that I'm not thrilled about (less than clean living habits), but the tenants on one side just set my alarm bells off.When I inspected the house before purchase they were living with no water or gas service to the house (they are responsible for utilities).

You can buy this and lose $3k per month while hoping the market continues to rocket to the moon, but that's gambling.

And, most of the people living in town are not thrilled about Space-X being there because of the regular noise and vibration from the constant engine testing.

I could do that In the stock market or go to Vegas and gamble.  

I have never purchased via seller finance before, but the seller is motivated to get her IRS issue cleaned up -- roughly $31K.I know this is a risky proposition on the $10K, but I think I am willing to gamble on this to give us enough time to work through pay-off arrangements with IRS if it is the best way to keep control of the property until we can get to clean title.

You are gambling that home prices will continue to move up with a new family member coming and leaving after next year leaving a home run by itself.My nephew and his wife both MD paid by ROTC USAF captains bought a 4900 sf home on 2.5 ac in Boulder, CO.