You can cloud the title with a - memorandum of option - performance mortgage - see link below. https://www.dropbox.com/s/pni60h5dhdt0xs5/performance%20mortgage.rtf 2. this item makes your lease option invalid - " Our lease option agreement states 1/2 of the monthly rent goes to principle. so $6k over the course of 24 months will be applied to principle."

While an extra $200 a month above your current rent+car payments is certainly achievable for a financially-disciplined person, your actual monthly expenses may be far greater than $2,155.When calculating your monthly housing expense, you also need to account for some of the following items that, as a renter, you do not budget-for, in addition to the $2,155 "base" loan payment:HOA (these can sometimes be several 100's per month, especially in condos)Homeowners' Insurance (this will be several 100's per year)Utilities (some may be covered by your condo HOA)Property Tax (if you don't save for this, you'll be scrambling for cash when the bill arrives)Mortgage Insurance (might be required depending on the size of your down payment) The above factors may be why your bank/lender is only qualifying you for a $1500 per month loan; though you can afford $2200 per month in aggregate, the bank does not want the HOA or County of LA to lien the property due to delinquent HOA payments or Property Tax payments, both of which are senior to the Bank's Paper.

If the numbers are right and there are other items in the "plus" column it could be worth hanging on.There's really too many unknown variables here to give you a meaningful opinion from here, like: prices, rents, amount of cashflow and equity, your longterm plan...

After that is confirmed, figure out what items the HOA is responsible for and what reserves might be needed in the next few years to pay those Capex projects.

So what happens is they will let items (like leaks) occur and just deal with it.

Please include the following 5 items: Clear copy of your Driver's License Current Voided check or Bank Deposit Slip: This serves as a secondary form of ID, we may cross reference check with the bank to verify your identity.

The inspection will fail for serious items like dead battery in a smoke detector or trivial items like missing 1 screw on a outlet or switch cover plate.Faill the inspection and they will advise the tenant to move out!

A couple weeks ago I noticed my neighbors were suddenly gone, but occasionally they'd come back to collect certain items but never over night.

Given you did a pretty good job identifying expenses and have a line item for your utilities I don't think you would have missed that.However I also agree that 5% maintenance is kind of low especially if you aren't putting away anything towards CapEx reserves too.

All else equal, buying homes that have been built to a very specific aesthetic is a bad choice.