I'm not familiar with $0 fee mortgages. I thought those were basically adding the closing costs to the mortgage, which I don't want to do. Can you suggest a lender to look at? Would I be able to put it together in 2 weeks?
And this is less than 20% of our net worth -- both houses. We just happen to have only 20k in cash and the rest in retirement accounts.
Call any mortgage broker you want. They will have a lowest-possible rate that will cost a few grand in fees, a higher rate that's cheaper, and an even higher rate that's free (or maybe they give you a few bucks). You're not rolling the costs into the loan, they're trying to get you to pay the higher rate for 30 years and making their money that way instead of fees on the front end. Some of the no-fee loans will have a prepayment penalty so double check that.
How are these two houses only 20% of your NW when you are forced to raid retirement accounts to pay for house #2? Unless these houses are like $10k, that doesn't add up:
house 1 + house 2 = say, $500k. Probably more than that, but just for the sake of argument.
$500k x 5 = $2.5 million NW with 20% in houses.
$2.5 million NW with no cash on hand to pay for a $250k house makes no sense.
In other words, if these 2 houses are 20% of your NW, where the heck is the rest of your money that you need IRA funds to make house #2 happen?
-W