buy a house

Found a realtor (a buyer’s broker).
We agreed that I should start looking seriuosly in September since my lease expires in January.

In the meantime, I’ll keep saving for my down payment! 11,000ish saved so far. I’m saving about $1500-2000 per month.

Went to go look at a townhouse today in my price range. What a dump!

Is anyone familiar with the tax rules for first-time home buyers to withdraw money from an IRA?

I have a traditional IRA, rollover IRA (also traditional), and a Roth IRA. All of my IRAs are less than 5 years old.

I’m wondering how much in taxes and penalties would I pay if I take money out of a traditional IRA for part of the down payment on my first house?

I read about this topic a little bit … if I understand correctly, I will just pay income tax on it but the 10% penalty is waived because it’s for a first home purchase. It sounds like there’s a 5-year rule that applies to Roth IRAs but not to traditional IRAs. I could be wrong. But hopefully I’m understanding this correctly … it would make my life easier.

I’m not planning to buy a house for at least 7 or 8 months. But I do want to go to some open houses to check out the area. Do you think it’s worth the effort to get pre-qualified right now?

I want a very small house, with a place to plant a garden, and lots of trees, close to work.

Blue Bell is expensive and I need a down payment. So I am going to redirect most of my 403b savings into house savings – hopefully for this year only. That should give me enough for a down payment, even if my boyfriend doesn’t feel like buying it with me. For now, I’m working under the assumption that I’ll be paying for it by myself.

After I buy a house (hopefully this winter) I want to get back to maxing out the 403b.