Underwriter

When applying for a home loan or mortgage loan with a conventional, alternative finance or Government program lender, the underwriter will want you to have at least two years job stability. Job stability for lenders across the country means that the borrower must be stable in a narrow career field for the past two years minimum.

If a borrower has been a manager of ABC grocery store and moves into car sales, this would not qualify. If the borrower went from ABC grocery to XYZ grocery obviously this would be fine. There are lots of gray areas such as: Someone that went from tire sales to auto sales, this may not be acceptable with certain lenders and might be with others. The type of loan that the borrower is getting will also impact the employment stipulations. With 100% financing, where all of the purchase price is lended, it would be difficult to expect much wiggle room.

With the recent default rates accelarating, expect that narrower guidelines will be applied. Lenders have set the low bar at two years income. This is the minimum job time allowed, which means that having two years is the earliest a person can qualify for a conventional home loan. Most lenders would love to see much more career time, including stability.

Are there times when less than two years of job times is not required? Rarely. Many of the investors buying these loans on the secondary market are starting to expect higher levels of security, job time being one of the components to loan strength.