Changing jobs before applying for a mortgage - self employed

[user1479289699]

Looking for some advice. Me and partner have begun looking for a house and are FTBs, we have a mortgage broker and he's told us what we could potentially borrow and we're soon to apply for a mortgage in principle. When we eventually find a house we'll obviously apply for the mortgage.

My partner is self employed but has been with the same company for 5 years but he's desperately unhappy there and wants to move in the next 1-2 months. Considering we may not find a house for another 6 months we don't want him to be unhappy for an indefinite amount of time before we purchase a house but also worried that changing jobs especially as he's self employed, would hinder our application.

What would you do?!

We had a similar situation a few years ago when we were FTB. Me and DH are both self employed, we changed from being sole traders to partners the year before we looked for a mortgage. Even tho it was the same business, type of work, even same customers, we were told the change in status (from sole trader to partner) would negatively impact any application. We had to wait til we had 2 years of books as partners.
For us it really didn't matter as it gave us time to save up a bigger deposit.

If you really want to buy soon I'd talk it through with your broker as different lenders have different policies. If you're employed it might be an option for you to get a mortgage on your own for example.
Good luck with it all!

Ask your broker. But if he's self employed then I don't think his client would even go down on the form so would be irrelevant. However I don't really know enough about self employment for only one client (I have lots) - is he a contractor in IT or construction? I think they're the main areas that get away with calling someone who only works for one client "self employed" rather than employing them.

Good point museumum I hadn't picked up there was only one client...
For me, my first mortgage (Halifax) didn't ask for details of my clients, my second mortgage (NatWest) has just completed last month and they did want to see evidence of a stable client base.
I guess the answer is... ask you broker! Let us know how you get on OP it can be dead stressful changing jobs and house!

He's in construction and would be moving to same field but potentially lower pay - he would just be happy to get out of there. When we first spoke to the broker the fact find form we filled out did ask for details of where he works and for how long even though the broker knew he was self employed - so I think that has to mean it's taken into account.

Thanks for advice so far, speaking to the broker is next on the list but don't want DH to get disheartened about moving jobs which will make him happy 😊

When we moved house last time they wouldn't take DH's salary into account as he'd been at his job less than 6 months. Luckily we could get enough of a mortgage on my salary alone.

Update: spoken to our mortgage broker who advises unless it's for a definite higher salary, to hold off for now and avoid rocking the boat. Poor DH will grin and bear it for now, and hopefully we'll have a new place by April and he can start searching.

Thanks for advice!

April will be here before you know it! Good luck with the move and house search