But your hesitation to buy now is not unusual. Many prospective home buyers like you are waiting to see if home prices might come down and mortgage interest rates might decline.

However, if either or both home prices and mortgage interest rates drop then buyers will flood the market, driving home prices up. You could miss out on today's home buying opportunity. Here are two alternatives:

-- Buy a fixer-upper. This is virtually a sure method to profit by purchasing a run-down house at a bargain price. Then fix it up to increase its market value. Personally, I aim for $2 of increased market value for each $1 spent on renovation improvements.

-- Lease with option to buy. My favorite low-cash method of buying and selling homes is to lease with an option to buy. Lock in the option price at today's market value for the home. Be sure to negotiate a rent credit toward the down payment of 25 to 100 percent of your rent paid. The rent credit is better than the ownership tax deductions. Meanwhile, you get to try out the house. If you don't like it, you don't have to buy. Further details are in my special report ``Insider Secrets of How to Earn Profits with Lease-Options'' available for $4 from NewspaperBooks, 64 East Concord St., Orlando, Fla. 32801.

Q In our town each homeowner pays a $50-per-month sewer service fee as part of the water bill. The purpose was to build a new sewer works.

However, I have heard it would be better to add the sewer service fee to our real estate tax bill, so we can deduct it on our federal income tax returns. Is this true.?

A. Yes, Real estate taxes on your principal residence qualify as an itemized deduction on your federal income tax return. Since each homeowner in your town is paying $600 per year for that fancy new sewer works, it would be to your advantage to eliminate the sewer tax and increase your real state taxes by that amount to make the $600 deductible on your federal tax returns. Many cities include sewer fees as part of the local property taxes. For more details, consult your tax adviser.

(Copyright 1991, Tribune Media Services Inc.)

Bob Bruss' column appears Sundays in the Home/Real Estate section of The Times. Letters and comments should be sent to Bob Bruss, Seattle Times Newsroom, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111.