Obtaining a mortgage post-FIRE?

[opnfld]

Practical question: has anyone obtained a mortgage post-FIRE?  I understand no-doc or no-ratio mortgages are available, but are they obtainable at a mustachian-level net worth on a ~$240K loan?

[Eric]

I realize that you asked for practical experience, and not theoretical discussion, but in case you're interested in some theoretical discussion:

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/real-estate-and-landlording/getting-a-mortgage-after-fire/
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/crazy-mortgage-qualifying-standards/

tl:dr -- yes it's possible, but the options are more limited.  You need to find a bank/credit union that is going to keep your loan (instead of packaging and re-selling it) as they'll have more flexibility to issue you a mortgage using non-traditional income.

[SamSpade]

It is possible to qualify for a mortgage using the 2 year average of investment income from tax returns (dividends, interest, cap gains, etc).  You can also qualify using assets as income, even for a FNMA loan.  I forget the exact calculation but I believe they take the total 401k/IRA balance, subtract 10% for the penalty if you're under 60, then subtract some additional amount to account for taxes/fluctuations, then divide by 360 months (30 years).  And then you can count that amount as monthly income.  Hope that made sense.

[opnfld]

Thanks Eric.  That helps a lot. 

[Retired To Win]

We looked into refinancing our mortgage after we were both retired.  The possible glitch was the lack (from the lender's computer program point of view) of a "regular" monthly income.  But the loan officer we spoke to also presented us with an easy solution: set up one of our tax-deferred/investment accounts to generate an automatic monthly deposit into one of our checking accounts and, after 3 such deposits, we would be considered to have a "regular monthly income."

Go figure.  But, whatever works.

[Dicey]

But the loan officer we spoke to also presented us with an easy solution: set up one of our tax-deferred/investment accounts to generate an automatic monthly deposit into one of our checking accounts and, after 3 such deposits, we would be considered to have a "regular monthly income."

Go figure.  But, whatever works.

OMG! This is brilliant! DH and are about to flip our first house. (As in buy one, do the work ourselves and then sell it, to state the sequence correctly.)
We decided to just pay cash for it, but a second opportunity has come up and we're trying to figure out how to (or if we should) do the second one. This is awesome food for thought. Gawd, I love this forum! Thank you for posting this RTW.

P.S. If it helps, we have a ton of cash on hand from the sale of another long-held property. We are not liquidating any other investments and have no debt.