I don't see any way for traditional lending to work in this scenario and a HML probably wouldn't be worth the cost.

A lot of guys will claim to be finished at 99% and claim that punch list items don't count and they will come back for that after, don't fall for it.

I have spent the last 20 years living in Los Angeles and NYC, but am interested in exploring a much more diverse list of potential cities for "early retirement" (i.e. a place to live when I no longer require traditional employment). 

If, however, sellers could push a button and get undisputable full price for their house, this would pose very serious problems for the traditional 5-6 percent brokerage business.This past March, news of Amazon entering the mortgage industry began to surface.

Think of it as your IRA buying stocks, but in this instance your IRA buys real propertyYou can't combine your 457, which is pre-tax, with your Roth IRA, which is post-taxJust like with any other retirement account you will be taxed at the time of distribution on tax-deferred accounts, or pull distributions tax-free from Roth IRAWhen you sell property (or any other investment) inside of a qualified account (Traditional or Roth IRA) there are no taxes, you are investing inside of a tax-deferred vehicleHope this helps! 

There are bits and pieces of RE statutes written into the UT code that will kick in, but only if a contract does not address whatever item / situation you're dealing with - a contract may override a state statute (emphasis on "may"). 

Or are you just a straight forward traditional?

If you're in a traditional agreement of sale there should be a specific time period for when the inspection needs to occur, how many days you have (buyer) to request repairs, and how long you (seller) has to provide feedback on requests.

Both are traditional mortgages.

Or should I just wait until the Fall or Winter, in hopes that the market will soften and I can afford a house hack using a traditional lender?