<prompt> Human: TLDR at the bottom. But heres a bit of an explanation of my situation. In the last 2 years ive had 3 jobs, each one paying more than the last. Currently in a position I feel confident will be long term employment, in a field I enjoy. I live with my GF, and her mother 68 in a small home 1200sqft where GFs mother is 5 years into a 30 year mortgage making minimum payments only. GF and I essentially live out of one room of this home and share the kitchenfront room with GFs mother. Its quite cramped. GFs mother is on Disability, with no emergency fund, and is constantly worrying that something will happen and she wont be able to cover it, essentially losing the house and have nowhere to turn. I have 8k in emergency fundsavings, 15k in a vehicle loan, and have never bought a house before. To be honest im fairly clueless as to the whole home buying process, especially the first time home buyer things. Ive been wanting to buy a house of my own in the future, though the houses in the area with the sizefeatures my GF and I want are all in the 280-250k range. I think theyre a bit too high for me to be able to get a mortgage on in the near 1-3yrs future. I have considered asking if GFs mother will sell me the house were living in now for two reasons; one, to lessen GFs mothers stress about the future. and two; to get the starter home that I can build equity with.The house has been slowly deteriorating for a few years; Old wooden fence is rotting out, Trees in the area are in desperate need of an arborist to prevent dead limbs from damaging roofs, garageshed needs shingles, etc. I am quite capable of doing the work to improve, or at least maintain, the house. GFs mother and I get along fairly well, Id say better than most MILSIL Mother-In-LawSon-In-Law relationships I have observed, but I still dont feel comfortable enough to make large decisions on the houselandscape as it is not my house and GFs mother gets very melancholy when I do try and improvemaintain things. and yes, ive brought up the need for an arborist at least 3x over the last 1.5 yrs GFs mother will live with GF and I, no matter which decision is made, as she isnt physically capable of living on her own safely anymore, so it wouldnt be as if buying the house from her would kick her out without a place to stay. TLDR: Do I offer to buy the house from GFs mother, findbuy a different house that fits our needs better1-3 yrs from now, or keep renting from GFs mother and saving for a future home buying opportunity probably 5yrs from now? Assistant: First, what market are you in? Second, do you plan on marrying your GF?Third, do you believe your MILs house will appreciate over the next 5 years if you are able to do some work on it? Human: As I dont know too much about housing markets and how much affects them, I cant say for certain. But I am confident I can up the desirability of the house significantly in 5 years from what it will be if I dont start fixingmaintaining things. It wont be a full renovation, but there will definitely be improvements in many areas, inside and out.as for Marrying, its not in the plans, though domestic partnership is. paying a tax just to be recognized as in a relationship doesnt appeal to either of us  <response>: By paying a tax, do you mean the governments fee for a marriage license? Usually that is not very expensive. If you are talking about income taxes, it should have a negligible or positive impact on your income. 