So we bought a house back in 2005 in Vancouver, Wa. that's basically a suburb of Portland, Or. Don't say that to someone from Vancouver they will not agree. I grew up in Vancouver so I'll say what it is, part of the Portland metro area. So this was the top of the housing boom at the time. We bought it near downtown Vancouver for 150K and sold it a year later for 199K. Not bad for one year. We proceeded to buy another house, much bigger on the other side of town, in Orchards, if your familiar with the Couve. This new house we bought for 234K. We did not use a VA loan, which I am eligible for. We used a No doc, stated income, ugly loan. I know, your what your saying... what an idiot. We sold it in a short sale, which I did not even know we could do. But we got out of it with one success and one miserable failure. But if I were playing baseball I'd be batting .500 and that ain't bad!

That's it that's that's my analogy. I will say that I learned more form that mistake than any of the books that I've read since. I know I will not make that mistake again. I was very reluctant to even buy the house we just bought. 

So we moved to Bend, Or. in 2011 for a new job. We found this house to rent. The owners were buying it in a short sale as well. So we rented it for about 4 years until we decided we were in a position to buy again. Bend Currently is a growing market. Houses are selling and it's a bit hot as far I'm aware. So I was reluctant. I didn't want to over pay again. So we called the owners, whom my wife had a great relationship with, she spoke with them often. So we offered to buy it. They said OK and we, my wife, negotiated the price under what other houses were selling for since we weren't using a real estate agent they agreed on the price. We used a VA loan and I feel much better about this than the last two. So my point here is if you're renter ask you landlord or the owner if they'll sell you never know.