Some of life’s biggest changes occur at the same time, even when you don’t plan it that way. It may just happen that you get a job offer that could greatly benefit your career with your closing date looming just weeks ahead. While your first instinct may be to reply with an ecstatic “YES!”; you do need to stop and think before you make that commitment because you’re about to take on a major financial investment. The choice may be right for you, but you’ve got to consider a few things first.

How Will Your Job Change Impact Your Mortgage Loan?

You need to bring your potential job change to the attention of your mortgage lender and there are a few factors they’ll look at to determine if that may compromise your ability to take on the mortgage you were previously approved for:

• If your income level will remain the same at your new job. If it’s higher, your mortgage may not be impacted; if it’s lower, it has the potential to change what you can afford.
• If you’ll be working in the same industry as the job(s) you’ve held before. Your mortgage lender may consider it a risky move and it could potentially compromise your mortgage.
• If there’s going to be a probationary period at your new job that will still be in place when you close, because then the chances are much greater that you’ll lose it since there’s zero job security.
• The length of time that you’ll be at your new job before your mortgage closing date. If you’ve switched jobs 90 days before you close on your home, then you may have enough stability on your side.
• Whether your high ratio mortgage is insured or backed up by a program or grant. Guidelines may differ, but some programs that allow you to make a low or no down payment  on your mortgage may choose to run a credit report and revisit your file at any time. You need to tell your lender or mortgage broker about your job change, and if this other program looks into it and don’t like what they see, they could refuse to back your loan.
• Your loan approval amount. If you’ve got a home loan that’s far less than what you can afford (according to the bank’s assessment) and are a two income household, it may be that your loan approval would not change.
• Your debt ratios. Regardless, your lender would recalculate your Gross Debt Ratio and Total Debt Ratio based on your new income, or based on the other household income if yours for some reason cannot be used.

Keep in mind that everyone has different circumstances and there can be compensating factors, so before you decline or accept a job offer, we can help give you guidance so that you can make an informed decision.