How soon can we start looking for a house if we could close in Feb '15?

[alyssamarie]

Updating post and title as situation has changed! (Deleted original post and replaced with below).

Husband graduates in December, starts full time job at the beginning of January. Lender says 30 days pay stubs will be needed for loan so we would need to allow 6 weeks for closing after his start date. 

How soon should we start looking for houses? If we started in next month and found a house that we liked enough to put an offer in, how likley is it that the seller would be okay with such a late closing date? Would it be better to wait to start looking until December? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Were the two part time jobs in the same field? If so then I believe lenders will see it as 2 years of employment. They may take a 24 month average of his pay, but not sure.

[alyssamarie]

Well the good news is that he got his formal job offer last week (it'll be full time and salaried)! I emailed the lender yesterday to see if we could get pre-approved with just that or if they'll require 30 days of paystubs, so I'll see what she says. I know some lenders accept a letter, but we are going with one that offers special down payment and closing cost financing so I'll have to see. 

[DallasLoanGuy]

if previous job was in same line of work = fine

if current job in degree field = fine

[sccredit]

What I found with a job change right before buying (going from self employed to employed) was they generated the approval off of an offer letter but had to have paystubs in hand before closing.

[alyssamarie]

---

@sccredit wrote:

What I found with a job change right before buying (going from self employed to employed) was they generated the approval off of an offer letter but had to have paystubs in hand before closing.

---

I think that might be the case. I sent an email Monday but I realized that my phone never actually sent it so I emailed her again, so hopefully we'll know soon!

Originally his start date was set for December 8th (immediately after he graduates) but we are taking a vacation December 15-20th and then they close for the holidays so he won't start until January after New Year's. So he won't have a month of pay stubs until February, but that's really not too long from now so we can be patient if we need to!

[Anonymous]

I am about 3 months short of 2 years here at my job. Before that I was a stay at home mom for 2 years. My processor is preparing my files as I type, and she requested a full 2 year work history for me. I just wrote a letter explaining that I am currently in the same field of work that I was prior to being a stay at home mom and explained that I am currently being trained for a promotion and that I am planning on a long future with this company. She said the letter was great, but I guess we will have to see what underwriting thinks. Plus, my husband has been at his job for 3 years and he could pretty much cary the loan himself, so that may help too. I hope everythigng works out for you. Keep us posted!

[alyssamarie]

Thanks! I talked with the lender today. She said that they will require 30 days of pay stubs for the down payment assistance loan before we can close. We decided to apply for the mortgage in just my husband's name and she said she will submit our application by Saturday for credit approval. Our credit is typically pretty good but our Amex is at 65% right now (0% interest) so I'm a little worried about how much that will hurt his score. 

I've been looking at houses online, but we won't be able to close until February so I'm thinking it might be better to wait another month or so to start looking. I'm just not sure if there's a point to looking now if we can't really put in an offer without asking them to wait 2 months to close, I'm not really sure how that works.