Legal Question in Banking Law in California

This is not a legal question, and quite frankly it seems like you haven't really thought this through before asking the question. You essentially have $12,000 invested. The rest is the bank's money. If you sell you get $12,000, less commissions and seller's closing costs. So say you get $11,000 out of it. You say you are paying $950/mo for the mortgage, so I would guess that with taxes and insurance your cost to earn $1,200/mo rent is about $1,100. So you pocket $100/month. You would have to invest the $11,000 somewhere that earns you 10.9% interest to match what you are making on the rent. Where are you going to get that rate of return in this economy? And that isn't even counting the free rent. If you sell you'll have to find some place to rent. So where would you invest $11,000 and make enough to rent an apartment PLUS 10.9% on top of that? And last but not least, you'd be selling at the bottom of the market. Sure, it's going to be a long time before the market bounces back, but say it only grows 1% a year, now you have to find an investment that pays for an apartment plus 11.9% on top of it. Get the picture? Keep the house. Or sell it to me. I'll give you net $11,000 for it in a heartbeat.