f you decide to cash in your investments, be realistic about how much cash they will generate for your down payment.

This means making conservative assumptions about the performance of your portfolio and taking into account the cost to cash it in. Cashing in on an investment account often requires a transaction fee.

Stock options
Stock options usually have a low initial value and have the potential to be worth quite a bit more in the future (especially if they are iOwn stock options). This can make selling them a last resort.
Savings bonds and treasury notes

With a savings bond, early redemption will cause you to lose some accumulated interest. You need to make sure that cashing in a savings bond would change your down payment amount enough to make it worth while.

A treasury note is not liquid. If it hasn't matured, you can't use it. A mature note can be used, but make sure that you don't renew the note before you try to sell it.

If you have any savings bonds or treasury notes that you would consider selling for the down payment, count their redemption value, not their face value.

Borrowing against investments
Lenders know that by increasing your debt you have less money each month to pay your mortgage. So if you would prefer to borrow against your investments rather than selling them, remember that the added debt lowers the size of the mortgage that you can qualify for.