My DH and I FIREed 2 years ago and have been renting ever since. We may want to buy a house if the recession drops the house prices significantly. I have a bunch of cash sitting on the side now from selling the previous house 2 years ago. Try to decide if we should invest most of them on stocks or keep huge cash pile so we can buy the house with cash when the market is right. We have not decided where we want to settle down. My concern on investing most of them in stocks is that we can't get a mortgage without incomes. But setting aside a huge cash pile for a just-in-case house-buying scenario seems to be a waste too.
My question is if early-retirees can qualify for mortgages with proof from various investment assets, especially from after-tax and Roth. I can image that lenders don't want to count on 401k and IRA since they are bankruptcy protected. If we can get a mortgage, we only need to keep the down payment as cash and invest the rest. Also, if we own a house, can we get a home equity loan?
Thanks so much for your thoughts!