I strongly advise, in this case, to seek professional help from a mortgage or financial advisor. You don't need to make any choices that will come and bite you right in the ass. If you are ready to make such risky decisions, you might as well take some of that money and spend it on professional advice. This way, you are surely going to dodge more than one bullet there. Believe me, been there, done that. Made some quite silly decisions, and they totally backfired. Since then, I made sure to take my ideas or plans to the professionals, in this case, straight to Mortgage Advice York, and they totally helped me with my mortgage, finances, and all. And by the way, you should consider "buying off" someone else's mortgage. This way, you just take over what they have to pay monthly/yearly, you don't have a loan limitation, you don't "smudge" your credit score, you don't need to come with a down payment, the list keeps going on.