I found a house that I want to buy as our new primary residence.  

Doing this 5 years ago you missed the Dodd-Frank party, but if you reinstate a new contract you will need to comply with the new financing laws unless you have a specific exemption, you may if that home was your residence and you're in the military.You need a Texas attorney!

So we decided to go for it.The property was operated by a mom and pop operator, who had taken great care of the property, but had allowed most of the residents to pay minimal rent.

Always great seeing other CT residents on the forums.

Would like to make a move either way when the first selling peaks hits in 2016. Any advice is appreciated.

I certainly did not, and neither did the mortgage lender who  pre-qualified me.After closing on the HELOC  this week, I was reading through the docs last night and stumbled upon the Occupancy clause :"Borrower shall occupy, establish, and use the Property as Borrower's principal residence within 60 days after the execution of this Security Instrument and shall continue to occupy the Property as Borrower's principal residence for at least one year after the date of occupancy, unless Lender otherwise agrees in writing, which consent shall not be unreasonably withheld, or unless extenuating circumstances exist which are beyond Borrower's control"So I'm not sure what to do.  

They are interested in renting my house long term to use as an assisted living home for 4 residents.

Intel has there largest employee base here so they CANT leave  tourism and AG and you know how switched on those AG folks are.. then you have the PDX  inner city folks  Keep Portland weird just watch Portlandia it is not far from the truth and actually I would say is a pretty good representation of many of our esteemed residences..

I used to own a primary residence in San Ramon.

My main question is if it would be smarter to use the money I have saved up to purchase a primary residence here in Los Angeles so I am no longer throwing money away on rent, or if I should use that money to invest in a rental property some place like Atlanta, where I'm familiar with the market and is definitely more affordable.