Real Estate people: I want to buy a house, advice?

[scotchnrocks]

It depends on where you are trying to buy property. For houses in the $120k range it sounds like you're probably 50+ miles from a large city. A reliable rent vs. buy calculator will be much more valuable than anything anyone can tell you about the market. It's different for everyone, and it's hard to give good input without a lot of the variables.