Brain Fertilizer

Okay, none of y'all came through with any input when I first posed the question about alternate mortgage options, but I went ahead and kept researching.

I finally decided its on the level.

CMG Mortgage is registered with the Bay Area Better Business Bureau, and has no complaints.

The Mortgage Accelerator is not for everyone. You need good credit to get it, and you need to be disciplined enough to not think "Oh, I've got plenty of time to pay off/down the line of credit...!" If you spend too much, you'll put yourself in difficulty, because you have to delay spending money as much as possible to let the interest cancellation work.

The fees are only a little higher than a traditional mortgage. The rate does float, right from the start, but you can put a 1% cap that extends for a full 5 years for a little extra in closing costs.

The upshot of it is, if we paid every extra dime toward a conventional mortgage, we'd pay off our mortgage in 5 and a half years, and pay about $42k in interest. We'd have to leave a little extra in the bank for emergencies, and if we had a big emergency, the only choice would be to use a credit card. But with the mortgage accelerator, it looks like we can pay it down in 2 years and 9-10 months, and only spend about $14.8k in interest.

I will provide updates as I go to let you know if run into any surprises. I've been blogging for nearly 6 years now, so you can rest assured I'll be here in 2 years and 10 months to tell you if the mortgage was paid off as expected.