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Hoping to get some advice/expertise on obtaining a mortgage. My husband and I are relocating to another state. Here's a little bit of background information:
-I have an offer letter from my new employer in the state we are moving to. I do not currently work and my new job does not begin until the end of August.
-My husband currently works in the state we now live in (has worked for 2+ years with his employer). He does not have an offer letter for the state we are moving to, but is currently in the process of interviewing with several companies.
-We both have decent credit scores (700+).
-We have a home in the state we currently live in. We have accepted an offer on the home, and are scheduled to close at the end of June.
-We would like to move at the beginning of July for a number of personal reasons. It will be difficult for us to move after mid-July.
-The most we will be able to put down on a new home purchase is about 10% (unless we lower the price range we are looking in, in which case we wouldn't be able to buy anything in the area we are moving to).
-We do not want to rent, for a number of personal reasons.
Based on that, do you think it's possible to get approved for a mortgage? I'm concerned about being able to get a mortgage for an out of state property when we only have my offer letter and my husband's current employment in this state. Any suggestions?
I would speak with a loan officer or mortgage broker in the city that you are relocating to. You can review your income, your offer letter, assets, and financial situation with him/her. The loan officer can give you an idea of what barriers you might face in underwriting and provide you with a pre-approval amount.
I recognize that you don't want to rent, but this is often the best choice when moving from out of state because its often difficult to choose where to live when you're not familiar with the area. You also don't know where your husband will work, so you either need to buy in a central location or seriously consider a short-term rental.
Underwriters will be more comfortable if you both have stable jobs with regular paychecks, especially if you need both incomes to afford your mortgage.
In terms of your offer letter question, my lender was fine accepting my offer letter, but its very situational. Underwriters may consider the industry you work in, your job title, and obviously your income. If this new job is high income in an industry that is not generally impacted by recessions, an offer letter might be enough.
the vast majority of lenders will not loan you the money until you have at least 1 months worth of paystubs from new employer in the new area you are working.
So the offer letter you have will do no good. Lenders used to accept offer letters a few years ago, but no longer. You could try a portfolio lender such as US Bank to see if they will loan based on your circumstances.
The only way i see that you could buy would be to buy the home as a investment property. Your husbands income would have to be great enough on his own to qualify and you will have to put down 20%. But an issue that might arise will be the verification of employment. If lender knows your husband is about to quit to start a new job, they will then want to wait until he has paystubs from new employer.
Everyone wants to do the one move, one time. But in your situation, it's going to be on your income or not at all. You should resign yourself to a temporary living situation, with another move in your near future. Find the cheapest short-term or month to month lease and stick to it, if that's what you really want. It will most likely cost you a few hundred more than a one year lease. If the one year lease lures you away from the short term rental, the pressure will be off the husband to accept the first thing that comes along. Your priority is protecting your furture down payment, which won't be easy. Put the money in a place that is not easily accessible.....somewhere you have to go thru at least a few steps to get to.
In a perfect world, it's one move. Once you get your head wrapped around the fact it's not likely, I predict much of the stress you may be experiencing will be lifted.
Thanks for all of the information and feedback. We know the area we are moving to quite well - my husband grew up a few towns over and this city is a very central location. I think at this point we'll reach out to a local loan officer and probably a mortgage broker as well just to get some initial feedback. We might also look at houses with lease options. Sounds like we'll just have to take this step by step and see what happens.
There are other factors to consider that don't have anything to do with a mortgage.
Unless you are very familiar with the area, it is likely that your house location
is going to "have problems." Renting first can often be a superior choice.
Getting to know traffic flow, where you like to shop and/or recreate and stuff like that is a good thing.
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