Does anyone have experience with getting a mortgage with a conditional job offer? We are first time buyers, and I am currently employed on a 12 month temporary contract. In March I was offered a permanent position with a £6k pay-rise starting in September.
We are planning on moving to a different town about 25 miles from where we currently are. We need to move by September. There is nowhere suitable to rent so we thought we would buy. We’ve been saving for a deposit for years (prior to my current 12 month contract I was at Uni doing an integrated Masters for 5 years) and we now enough.
Our mortgage broker said that with a job offer letter or contract which includes salary and start date we would be able to apply for a mortgage three months before the start date. I sent the job offer letter I have to the mortgage broker, who said he checked with Nationwide whether it was acceptable and they yes, they would accept it from June 1st.
We found a house we love and put an offer in on Friday which was accepted. We spoke to the mortgage broker again to let him know to start the mortgage application on Tuesday. At the end of the conversation I double checked with him that the job offer letter was sufficient and he said yes, but he’s got to be honest they might need it tweaking a bit!
Now I’m panicking as I won’t be able to get another tweaked letter. The original job offer letter didn’t have start date so they already tweaked it for me to add the start date but made it clear the actual contract wouldn’t be sent until the week before I start. I did make this clear to the broker and pointed out the offer letter said it’s conditional and he said it wasn’t a problem.
He indicated it might be the salary that needs tweaking as it’s a salary range. I can’t see why this is a problem as long as affordability is taken from the lowest salary? I’m worried though that it’ll be the ‘conditional’ part that needs tweaking. It’s conditional upon pre-employment checks (which presumably will be fine as I already work there) and being registered with the relevant professional body which I will be, but not until August.
The broker did say though that he checked the letter with the mortgage people and they were fine with it.
The solicitor wants to start searches which obviously requires us to spend money but should I try and hold off until we’ve applied for the mortgage? Or does it not work that way?