you can print out old statements online of cell phone bills etc. along with anything you used a card for debit/credit and that should be fine. Pure cash without receipts you're sol.

Ncrealestateguy, I thought I covered the bases because I waited until my buyer's buyer had his mortgage commitment, and I waited until the inspections were done and approved, plus he didn't have a house to sell. So you are saying I should wait until my next buyer actually closes on his house? How can someone wait to go house shopping until they close on their house? Don't they have to get out? I can't imagine there are many people who can move twice by renting in between deals. I have a couple of people coming in the next few days. One of them is closing on his house in two weeks. They need a place to move to. What do I do, tell them I can't accept an offer until they actually close? Won't they then go and look for another house that they can make a deal on? I thought of offering my buyer some more money off to help him pay for remedying his situation. In fact, I expected him to ask me. But he sounded adamant that his deal was over. Maybe I'll try. I will also tell him what Kathy and others said. I got the feeling he thinks his buyer's lawyer used this to try to get more money off the price though. I bet that lawyer said, "It's a buyer's market, you can get twenty grand off for this." Someone misunderstood. It's not MY house that's in a flood zone. Live Wire, I'm not getting a mortgage. The new location is attractive because I want to move back home to my family. My mother died last year and I got terribly homesick. Yesterday, my father passed out in his apartment, woke up on the floor and was vomiting blood. I don't know how he didn't hit his head or choke to death. He's now in the hospital and I'm ten hours away. I know the area quite well because I lived there for 44 years. It's my home state. We are not getting rid of the horses because they are our life--not only my daughter's, but my husband and I ride too. It's a lifestyle for all of us and not only that, we are responsible for these animals. You guys gave me an idea though of asking the seller of the house I'm trying to buy if we could rent it while we're waiting to sell this. It's empty. Getting some money would take some of the pressure off the seller and also show him how serious we are so he would maybe give us more time to find another buyer and allow us to stay in contract. I have confidence that I'll sell it again in a timely manner. I've actually "sold" it not twice, but three times since the fall. I don't even count the first lady because that deal fell through so fast (something turned up on her credit report.) What do you guys think of that? This way I'm renting, but I'm not moving twice.

Tricia's too quick for me. I guess that I'll have to settle on being the 2nd person to wish you congratulations. Congratulations!

My family was in a similar position a few years ago with a rental townhouse in ok shape but dirty, dirty. We were moving out from my in-laws house and just wanted a place to live. We had decided against an apartment and our unit was the only townhouse in the area in our price range that we halfway like. The previous tenants were very poor housekeepers (fortunately no animals) and the landlord hadn't done anything to clean up either. If we had another house to consider we wouldn't have bothered with it but we needed somewhere to live. We decided to make the most of it, and I cleaned the carpets and scoured the place from top to bottom. We didn't bother asking the landlord for compensation because we figured if they were going to pay they would have done it before we moved in. We did what it took to make it livable for us. Fortunately our landlord agreed to replace the worst flooring after a year there, which was the carpet in the LR and vinyl in the kitchen. After the flooring was replaced the whole house was much more pleasant and we enjoyed living there. If I were you, I would do what I needed to in the short term to make it habitable and focus on moving into your new home in a few months. I wouldn't want to spend a lot of money trying to get out of my lease, or paying rent on two places just to keep from living in the dirty place. It would be taking money away that you could spend at your new place. And if anything it will make you appreciate your beautiful, clean home even more!