I wondered about this myself - I don't know what the closing costs are on a $225,000 loan, but it can't be free. I most certainly wouldn't call him mustachian (Boglehead, maybe?) - he likes to fly planes in his spare time, and I know that's not cheap. Also, he lists out his monthly housing costs without a mortgage at $1,695. That includes the following breakdown:
Property taxes: $500 ($6,000 paid annually)
Homeowners Association (HOA) fee: $160
Utilities: $485 ($65 home warranty, $200 cable, $80 gas, $80 water, $60 alarm)
Homeowners insurance: $400
Repairs: $150
Then later in the article, he states "I always wanted to have that stability ... As long as we can scrape up $6,000 per year for property taxes, we’re fine." Um... not really. You've introduced a lot of costs that are difficult (if not impossible) to pare down. 'It’s mine," he says. "You can’t take it away." Until you can't scrape up that $6,000...
I mean, overall, kudos to him for saving up that much coin and buying his house outright. It just seems to me there is a LOT of wasted opportunity in this story. It's almost like a contest to see which author can come up with the most outrageous sounding title. If that's the case, the writer on this one wins.