I feel like that is a large gamble in itself.

. :)Johnson City is a bit of a gamble right now, from what I can tell (and what my clients say).

SO with either of these two scenarios I would have lost my $500, hence why I would prefer to gamble with $75 instead.

One thing almost everyone does agree on -- any high-interest debt you have, vampire credit card debt, payday loans, outsized car payments on fast-depreciating vehicles, gambling debts, personal loans, you should pay that off.

Personally I am gambling and holding out for a while longer 

@Babu Ramadoss you're going to get the it depends answer. it depends on your short and long term goals. many will say chasing appreciation is gambling like the stock market. others say cash is king and never put your money where roi is not maximized. personally, my goal is replacing w2 income in 7 years so cashflow is king for me. that also means I need to use less leverage with lower roi, or do more brrr which would like take longer based on what I buy. your market will likely dictate one or other, and for the record I ignore appreciation in my underwriting as a buy and hold investor. the appreciation will never be realized until I refi out down the road.

This was obviously a bit of a gamble because the house had to appraise above a certain figure in effort to remove the PMI but we chose to do it anyway because the rate reduction in and of itself was worth the cost/effort of the refi.

Uncontrolled fire can become a big problem.

Appreciation potential is gambling as far as I'm concerned.

It's too much of a gamble for us not to take it and keep it separate in case of need.