Key Takeaways
- Fannie Mae evaluates your most recent two years of work, not your time at your current employer.
- Some conventional purchase loans can close before your first day with a signed employment offer or contract.
- Under Fannie Mae guidelines, bonus, commission, overtime and tip income generally needs a two-year history, or at least 12 months when other strengths in your file offset it.
- Lenders confirm your job again shortly before closing, so talk to your lender before changing jobs mid-process.
Often, yes: starting a new job doesn’t by itself rule out a mortgage. Fannie Mae’s guidelines ask whether your most recent two years show a reliable pattern of work, not how long you’ve been with your current employer.
What usually decides your timing is the kind of change you made, how you’re paid, and whether you’ve started yet.
Is there a minimum time you need at a new job?
Not under Fannie Mae’s guidelines for most borrowers. Fannie Mae’s employment income standards ask lenders to judge whether your work history shows a reliable pattern over the most recent two years, which can span more than one employer.
A shorter history can still be eligible when other strengths in your file offset it. Changing jobs frequently doesn’t rule you out, either: Fannie Mae treats borrowers who change jobs frequently but earn consistent, predictable income as having a reliable flow of income.
Individual lenders can add their own requirements on top of agency rules, called overlays, so it’s worth asking your lender what its rules are. This article uses Fannie Mae’s rules; Freddie Mac, which also buys conventional loans, sets its own, and they differ in some details.
FHA loans follow HUD’s Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1. Individual lenders and investors may have requirements that are stricter than HUD’s minimums.
How lenders read your situation
Lenders weigh whether your new income is likely to continue, and that depends mostly on what kind of change you made. This table shows how the guidelines treat common situations.
| Your situation | What the guidelines say | What it can mean for timing |
| New employer, same line of work, base pay | Fannie Mae: a two-year pattern can span employers, and frequent changes are acceptable with consistent, predictable income | Often doesn’t affect timing on its own |
| Raise or promotion with your current employer | Fannie Mae: a future increase in fixed base pay can count if it takes effect within 60 days after closing, your employer verifies it, and the loan is a purchase or limited cash-out refinance | The higher pay can count before it starts |
| Different line of work or a shorter work history | Fannie Mae: a shorter history may be eligible if positive factors offset it | Depends on the rest of your file, weighed case by case |
| New pay is mostly bonus, commission, overtime or tips | Fannie Mae: two years recommended; at least 12 months with offsetting factors | Pay history from the same line of work may count; pay that’s new to you may not count until you’ve received it for 12 months |
| Back at work after a gap in the last 12 months | Fannie Mae: the lender must analyze whether your current job is likely to continue | Expect your lender to ask about the gap |
| FHA loan after a gap of six months or more | HUD Handbook 4000.1: six months in your current line of work at case number assignment, plus two years of work history before the gap | Six months back at work before that income counts |
| Working for a family member’s business | Fannie Mae: employed there at least 12 months before applying, with a tax return showing you own less than 25% of the business | That income may not count until you reach 12 months |
These are program rules. A lender applies them to your whole file, so your own result depends on more than one row.
One example of where lender practices can differ: at Tomo Mortgage, underwriters can count commission, bonus or overtime from your previous job toward a new role in the same line of work, using your year-end pay stubs from the past two years.
Can you get a mortgage before your first day?
Sometimes. Fannie Mae permits a loan to close before you start a new job when a signed offer letter or employment contract documents your income, but the conditions are narrow.
Fannie Mae’s rules for employment offers and contracts work two ways. In either, you can’t work for a family member or anyone involved in the sale. In one, the lender collects a pay stub from your new job before the loan is sold. In the other, no pay stub is needed first, but every one of these must be true:
- The loan is a purchase of a one-unit home you’ll live in.
- You qualify on fixed base pay alone.
- Your start date is no earlier than 30 days before closing and no later than 90 days after it.
At Tomo Mortgage, closing on an offer letter before your first paycheck is possible when your employer confirms your pay, start date and schedule in writing, through a written verification of employment. Your new role also needs the same kind of pay you’ve had for the last two years, meaning a W-2 job with regular pay stubs, so this path doesn’t fit a move from W-2 work to self-employment or contract work, which is documented differently. Both of these go beyond Fannie Mae’s requirements.
FHA uses a shorter future-start window than Fannie Mae’s conventional rule. HUD’s FHA handbook permits income from a new job that begins within 60 days of closing if the employer verifies the existence and amount of the income in writing and confirms that it is guaranteed to begin within that period.
VA loans follow separate employment-income requirements in the VA Lenders Handbook, Chapter 4. VA requires qualifying income to be verifiable, stable and reliable, and expected to continue, so if you haven’t started your new job yet, ask your loan officer how your income will be documented before you set a closing date.
What your offer letter needs to show
Fannie Mae requires a fully executed offer or contract, signed by you and the employer. It must name both of you and spell out your position, type and rate of pay, and start date.
For the no-pay-stub path, the offer also has to be non-contingent. If the job comes with conditions, such as a background check, the lender must confirm before closing that they’ve been met. The lender then uses the monthly income in the offer letter as your qualifying income.
How much extra cash do you need
If you close before you start on the no-pay-stub path, Fannie Mae requires reserves beyond what the loan normally needs. Your lender documents one of two things: six months of your new housing payment (principal, interest, taxes, insurance and any association dues), or enough money to cover every debt in your debt-to-income ratio, new housing payment included, for each month between closing and your start date, plus one more month.
Your lender may count part of a month as a whole one. Say you close on October 15 and start on December 1: that’s 1.5 months, counted as 2, plus 1, for 3 months of your monthly debts. Savings count toward that, and so can income you’ll still receive between closing and your start date.
Documents to have ready
The exact documents depend on your lender and situation. At Tomo Mortgage, underwriters typically ask for these on a new-job file:
- Your signed offer letter or employment contract
- A written verification of employment from your new employer, confirming your pay, start date and schedule
- Your last two years of W-2s
- If the new role pays commission, bonus or overtime: year-end pay stubs from the past two years, showing what you earned from each
- Pay stubs from the new job, once you have them
- A short explanation of any gap, if your lender asks for one
Your employment will generally be verified again before closing. At Tomo Mortgage, that means contacting the payroll or HR contact your employer designates to confirm your pay, start date, schedule and position. For the documents every application needs, new job or not, see what documents you need to get a mortgage.
What if you change jobs during the mortgage process?
Talk to your loan advisor before you accept, if you can, because your job gets checked again right before closing. Fannie Mae requires a verbal verification of employment within 10 business days before the closing date, and FHA requires reverification within 10 days before closing.
A new employer means your income gets documented again. If your pay structure changes too, say from salary to commission or to 1099 contract work, different rules apply to that income, and some of it may not count right away. See how lenders calculate 1099 income, and for what gets reviewed between application and closing, how mortgage underwriting works.
Apply now or wait? Here’s how to decide
A preapproval shows how a lender reads your income today, which is the quickest way to find out whether timing matters for you.
If you’re paid a salary or hourly wage in the same line of work, you may be able to move ahead now. If your new role pays commission or bonus you haven’t earned before, you’re back from a long gap on an FHA loan, or you haven’t started yet, a preapproval can show which income counts today and whether a later date would change your options. When to buy is your call.
Tomo Mortgage can issue a preapproval based on a job offer letter, so you don’t need to wait for your first paycheck to find out. Tomo Mortgage’s preapproval uses a soft credit check, so checking doesn’t add a hard inquiry to your credit report.
Not sure which step you need? Check out our prequalification vs. preapproval article here.
A preapproval is not a commitment to lend. Final approval depends on full underwriting, including verification of your income and employment.
Tomo Mortgage, LLC · NMLS #2059741 · Equal Housing Lender
Frequently Asked Questions
How soon after getting a new job can you get a mortgage?
Fannie Mae’s guidelines don’t set a minimum time at a new employer for most borrowers; they look at your most recent two years of work. Some purchase loans can even close before your first day with a signed offer letter. For bonus, commission, overtime and tip income, Fannie Mae recommends a two-year history, though at least 12 months may be acceptable when positive factors offset the shorter history. FHA loans after a gap of six months or more generally need six months back at work.
Will getting a new job affect my mortgage application?
It depends on the kind of change. A new employer in the same line of work, paid a salary or hourly wage, can fit Fannie Mae’s standard of a reliable two-year pattern, which can span employers, as long as your recent work history shows that pattern. A switch to commission, contract or self-employed work brings different rules for that income, and some of it may not count right away.
Do I need to tell my mortgage lender about a new job?
Yes, and as early as you can. Lenders verify your employment again shortly before closing, within 10 business days under Fannie Mae’s rules, so a change will come up either way, and your new income will need to be documented.
Can I get a mortgage with just an offer letter?
In some cases. Fannie Mae permits a purchase loan on a one-unit home you’ll live in to close on a signed, non-contingent offer letter if you qualify on base pay, your start date falls within 90 days after closing, and you have extra reserves. Individual lenders may have additional documentation or underwriting requirements beyond Fannie Mae’s minimums, so confirm the requirements before relying on an offer letter to set your closing date.