You don't need a mortgage in this scenario, that's the beauty. You leverage the value of the house itself to purchase the house, all made possible by the size of the down payment. This way, you just deposit all your available funds and income into the line of credit. It's also more flexible than a mortgage in that your can both pay off as much as you want, with the ability to borrow back against it again with no penalties. This allows you to put all liquid assets against the loan with the ability to get them back out again in an emergency. I was also able to negotiate prime on mine, so the interest was very low. I did this twice, and was able to pay off the debt within 3 years each time, single income, making less than $60k/year. By starting with a modest house, you can leapfrog up to a high-value property in a short timeframe and a minimum of interest payments