Could I buy mother's house?

I would check with an Elder Law attorney to see what would be the right way of doing this. If he/she says yes, then the house should be sold at fair market value just in case down the road your Mom should need to sign up for Medicare. Equity from the house would need to be all transferred to your Mom for her care.

You could give your Mom "life estate" of the property. The only draw back to life estate is if your Mom goes into a nursing home, she still has life estate of the property. You wouldn't be able to sell it until she passes.

I can also recall reading here of a situation where the senior was granted Life Estate but soon moved to a nursing home. When the family member went to sell the house - even though they owned it - Medicaid wanted to be paid back the sum of money they established the value of the Life Estate - kinda like what Medicaid would have saved if the senior had been living in the house. It added up as it had been a few years.

golf123, If she is NOT on Medicaid, and you are certain she will NOT need a nursing home for at least 5 years, Look into the Life Estate option with an attorney. It will cost a few thousand to do that.