You can only contribute a certain amount to a Roth IRA annually. You have some room to reorg your investments if you choose.
In terms of purchasing a home, I would recommend having honest conversations with multiple potential future lenders to get an idea of what they will need from you at a minimum.
Knowledge is power. They can give you a pre-qualified letter (involves not pulling your credit but giving you an idea of what you can do with your verbalized financial situation).
Once you decide what lender to go with, they can do a hard credit pull and give you a pre approval letter with your finances confirmed via pay stubs, income taxes, etc.
While 20% used to be the recommended down payment, it’s just that- a recommendation. There is room to negotiate with some lenders.
I put 10% down, and saved the rest for repairs and an emergency fund. I went with a conventional mortgage.
I could have done an FHA, which only requires 3.5% down. With FHA, there are a lot of rules involved that I didn’t want to be bothered with.
Conventional and FHA mortgages both have pros and cons outside of just the down payment.
I lost not one, but two homes I placed an offer on, to FHA buyers. The sellers went with their offer because they went above asking, and I wasn’t willing to do that in the event the home failed appraisal.
Both homes ended up failing to meet the rigid FHA inspections required to approve their loan, and by the time the deal fell through (sellers weren’t agreeable to repairing anything and the buyers couldn’t afford the repairs needed), the sellers agent was asking my buyers agent if I were still interested.
It’s a wild game, and some sellers get caught up seeing more money, without realizing the risks involved with FHA purchasers (risks, ie. lost time if it doesn’t pass inspection, re-listing the home, buyer not potentially able to accept large fixes needed, bills associated with another month of ownership).
In terms of lenders, I advised my lender, if the deal was dependent on paying PMI, I had a pre-approval letter from a competitor with 10% down, no PMI, and as a personal choice, no escrow involved (I make more investing that money than the banks interest).
They agreed without hesitation.
At the end of the day, if you have employment history, a sound financial plan, investments or securities, a mortgage is income for them for the next 10-30 years.
They want you to be a customer.
