I 100% agree with this comment. I closed on a house 35 days after starting a new job (a few years back). The bank only required a single paystub for my wages. The bank does not care if you worked there 20 years or 20 days - if you have a paystub, then that is all their underwriting system will see. Unless you are getting a mortgage from a small bank/credit union that will not sell their mortgage to either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (extremely uncommon), then the bank does not care about the longevity of someone's current job. If he is a self-employed plumber or soon to be one, then that completely changes the story - banks require (in most cases) two years of self-employment earnings to use for the purposes of qualifying for a mortgage.Can he apply in a couple of weeks when he begins his new job? People often change jobs.
In my case, my loan officer knew the situation we were in (as did all her management). They had underwriting pre-approve everything in the package just waiting for the paystub to be added, and my loan was clear to close less than 24 hours after I uploaded the paystub for their review (and I think we closed a few days later). I was the realtor, so I was careful to ensure we kept a mortgage contingency active in case anything came up.
A few comments to consider is that some of the options being mentioned aren't going to be ideal from a cost perspective (particularly if just delaying closing by two weeks - or whatever amount is needed for the first paycheck - if possible). If the OP borrows against his investments and loans that cash to the son for the purchase, then that will be a cash purchase followed by a cash out refinance, which will come with a higher interest rate for the son (compared to an initial purchase with mortgage - cash out refinance will always carry a higher rate). If the OP purchases the house and then resells it to the son once the previous house sells and he is established in the new job, then depending on where the house is located there could be significant transfer taxes that are owed for each leg of the sale even if the 2nd sale is from parent to son. Now to borrow on margin the $120k while waiting for the current house to sale - that is a family question and while people here can strongly recommend that is a bad idea...many families are very comfortable doing that. If realistically the money (or a portion of it) is going to son one day anyway - is it that big of an issue to provide a loan in that situation? In some cases, family support each other and that isn't a bad thing (even if it brings risk).
Statistics: Posted by FoolishJumper — Thu Jan 15, 2026 9:58 am — Replies 63 — Views 2871