<prompt> Human: Throwaway because detailsWe live in a rent-controlled 21 in the Bay Area, been in the same place for 12 years now so our unit is considerably under market price. Weve been saving up to purchase a house for about a decade now and are close to doing so, but not quite there yet - need another year or two of savings to get to the point where we feel comfortable moving forward with a house we can afford and still maintain an emergency fund.Well, the owner of our apartment who Im on good personal terms with emailed me this AM and asked if wed be willing to be bought out on a short time frame. California is considering passing Prop 10 which would harm his ability to raise rent even after a tenant leaves, and our place is so below market that theyre worried they would be locked in at a low rate for many years. The catch is that wed need to be out within a month; the sweetener is that the owner has another vacant 31 unit hed be willing to allow us to move into for a year at the same cost as our current unit. Details below: Current rent: 1800month Rent Control: about 1 per year tops Yearly combined income: about 190k Current liquid savings: about 120k Parental contribution: about 30k Buyout offer: 25k flat Monthly post-everything income: 9600 Monthly expenses: 8000 3kmonth is childcare, which will be half in a year and gone in 3Housing costs are pretty high here in the Bay Area so Im sure wed need to get a place in the 7-800k range if we wanted to live anywhere with a decent school district. With all the cash we had available, wed have something like 175k; we can add another 8k by years end without too much of a problem. So, this would allow us to accelerate our plans of buying a house from two years from now to essentially today.Now for the interesting part. The catch is that wed have to move within a month, prior to the beginning of November for sure. Not only is that not much time to move, which is a hassle, but the new apartment offered for us to move into is about 10 minutes further away from the kids daycare and my work, so there will be some extra commute cost. Landlord has proposed giving us the first 4 months rent-free and then 8 months at the normal rate which equates to roughly the same as were paying right now, which isnt a bad deal. What more, if we were able to find and close on a house within those 4 months 5 essentially as Ill have a month of lead-time we end up paying no rent at all for those months and saving an extra 7k or so of post-tax dollars on top of the 25k.Its an attractive offer and I want to take it, but I worry about giving up our rent-controlled place without having an actual house that were purchasing to move into. So, PF geniuses: - Is 25k enough money to jump at to go through this hassle? - Is it worth taking a chance on buying a house earlier to save this money? - Are payments for rent buyouts considered taxable income? My landlord sez hes not going to send a 1099, which sounds a bit shady but whatever.Cheers and thanks to you all!  <response>: Thats very little savings for 10 years working toward this goal. I dont see how you can afford to buy anyway, if you spend this much. Id keep the rent control.And I dont think your assumptions are great about buying, if you are dead set on buying. You need a local mortgage broker or several. You might be able to get an awesome loan with 10 down, depending on your situation. 