What exactly did you do in real estate? Booking deals that fall apart before closing will not do anything for an agent’s “numbers” and will only serve to irritate the broker in the long run. Agents can be judged several ways, but a contract that is signed and has not gone to closing is worth the paper it is printed on. Deals fall apart all the time for a variety of reasons, real estate agents are evaluated on listings and sales procured and closed not pending deals on the books.
Astro- Commercial real estate agent, Realtor and CCIM for over 16 years.
Are you sure you want to keep the purchase on if you lose your job? I know you said you can “afford” the bills, but jeez, this is a massive step. Mrs. Bernse and I could afford our mortgage on one salary too, that doesn’t mean I would have gone through with the purchase if one of us got canned in the process. I am just worried for you that maybe this isn’t such a good idea right now…
Don’t know if this applies in your case, but when I closed on my house, one of the documents I signed was a statement that “My financial situation had not [drastically] changed since I had applied for the loan.”
If I had been let go in the meantime, I don’t think I could have signed it (let alone find a way to make the payments).
bernse, since we signed the contract on the condo, the other condos in the building have gone up in price by $8,000, and the neighborhood is being totally revamped. I see it as a wonderful investment that’s already making equity.
Also, we have to be out of the building we’re living in on June 13th, because it’s being torn down and rebuilt. I just don’t think we could find a place (that will take a dog) in that time.
I know we can make the payments, and my boss told me this morning I’d be employed until the middle of June at least…so I’m still stuck here.
Er… I’m pretty sure that most mortgage companies do a check 1-2 days before you close on a mortgage to make sure that, for example, you haven’t lost your job. If I were you, I’d make sure I had a job at least until the mortgage papers were signed. After you close, the mortgage company won’t care if you lose your job.
Of course, if your husband qualifies on his own income, it shouldn’t matter. But I’d make damn sure of that before leaving your job.
Boss said he’ll do whatever he can do to get me through closing. I’m sure he would tell them that I’m still working here, frankly because I will be. He just asked me in the past hour if I would consider freelancing through the summer.
I’m real confused today. This is like a bad breakup.
Not to throw more wood on the fire of confusion, but are you sure that you will be more happy without this job.
I know that the standard “you might be happy elsewhere” speech is really an exploratory speech given to an employee who is valuable and/or has potential.
If you think your job is decent and your boss is good and if you beleive his gripe was legitimate, it may be worth your time to tell the boss that you’ve “seen the light!” and would like to stay on.
His gripe is legitimate, I’ve been trying to start my own business at home so I can quit, I’m just bored as all get out, and he needs someone who really loves real estate and can come in early and stay late, and with all of the things on my plate (acting, catering) I simply can’t do it.
I was planning on leaving eventually, I guess he could sense it. I’ve been here six years and its just so tedious, I dread going to work every day…not because of him, but because I dislike the work.
A similar thing happened to us when we were about to close on our house. Less than 2 weeks before we closed, husband got laid off. We told our realtor and asked her what to do. She immediately called the mortgage co. and informed them what had happened. Since he was only laid off, not fired, we were still allowed to go ahead with the closing with a letter from his employer stating that he would get his job back within a certain amount of time (I think it was 2 months). We had a very friendly mortgage company working with us, though, and he hadn’t completely lost his job, just laid off for a while. If he had been fired, I think we would have had to try to re-qualify with only my income (not likely). The papers we signed at closing would have had to change if he was no longer working at the same job.
I think your situation is ok to not report since you will still be employed when you close. If you were fired before then I think you would have to report it, but it sounds like you are ok. If you have questions, is there someone you could ask in a ‘theoretical’ sense? What if you called your mortgage co. and said there was talk of layoffs, or you were thinking about changing jobs and wondered how that might affect closing?
It did in my office… We had this “probation” period for new agents, and the way that it read was that agents could hire on permanently with a better split based on open deals during the first 3 months, not closed sales. It was ass-backward, I know, but I hear a lot of offices do this.
I’m no expert, so this is just an antedote, but when I got my mortage here (in Ontario) I was told that once you had been approved through a bank (not just qualified through a realestate company) you were good to go. My ex boss quit his job right after getting his mortage. I suffered a drastic cut in myhours right after getting my mortage, and the bank never knew about it, if they keep getting their money, I don’t know how much they care. But again, I am certainly no expert, this is just from personal experience.
And an aside, isn’t it a wonderful feeling buying your own place?
I wouldn’t say anything.
You qualified, you were approved, they looked at the snapshot of the moment.
We refinanced, needing both our salaries to do so, and my husband got laid off, right after they said ok. We went thru it, and like you said, he was a still in the books for a while anyway.
If you know your husband can pay for the mortgage etc, if it doesn’t put you in a too difficult situation financially, just keep going.
Congrats on the purchase!
Sorry about the situation, jarbabyj. But I’ve read a few of your rants against your job, so this does seem like an ultimately good thing.
As for your question, you need to read all of the documentation. It will either state that you do, else you don’t. You can’t be held legally accountable for something like that unless you put your signature to it. So read what you put your signature on. If it says you must tell them, and you don’t, welll…hope you don’t get caught. Otherwise there is no blanket law that says you must disclose all details of your financial life to your mortgage company in any state. You can only be held accountable for what you sign.
Hey Jar,
Sorry to hear about the job loss, I work for a very large mtg company. We call the day we close the loan, the day you are sign the actual loan documents, to make sure you are still employed. If not, no loan. Email me if you have other questions.
I’m sorry to hear about the bad news of your job loss, but happy to hear about the gain of your new condo. I echo all the comments here saying don’t report it unless there is a clause in the contract that stipulates otherwise. My parents have been through job after job, being laid off, and brief periods of unemployment, and none of that seemed to matter to their bank when it came to paying off their mortgage (which they are still doing). As long as the mortgage is being paid and there’s nothing saying you have to be report unemployment/be employed throughout the duration of paying it, I think that all will be fine.
Our town house is in Marcie’s name but my income was a contributing factor in securing the loan. When we had an opportunity to re-finance at a greatly reduced rate, we jumped at it. At that time, I had been unemployed for close to two years and we had no difficulty getting re-financed. They didn’t ask about my employment and I didn’t tell 'em. If I were you, I wouldn’t tell 'em either.
Weird. This seems to be a time of good news/bad news. On the same day I got a contract to buy a house (May 5), my grandmother died. Now here you are, about to close and lose your job. Congrats on the house. Sorry about your job. I totally relate to the high/low emotional rollercoaster you’re probably on right about now. (Wanna join me in the front car? Ride’s better that way! No holding on now…)
The exact same situation happened to my sister in Ohio. Friends and family advised her not to tell the mortgage people, just move forward with closing. Especially since they had pretty much qualified and approved based on her husband’s income. My sister chose to report the loss of her job and begged off the deal. She was concerned about being able to make the payments, which is all the mortgage people care about. Your situation sounds a little different: you have alternate means of income and being in Chicago (IIRC), you could probably find another similar job in a short time. And you have fewer alternative housing choices. My sister was in a less reliable situation and decided risking the home for her two children wasn’t worth it.
As it turned out, they stayed in their apartment for another year, found an even better job, and found an even better house, for an even better deal. Worked out for the best, although it didn’t seem like it would while she was going through all that.
Update: We called our realtor, who in turn called our lawyer who told us that as long as I am legitimately employed on June 5th, there’s no problem. The approval and underwriting for the mortgage have already been done, and he said, unlike commercial loans, they aren’t always checking up on your employment.
I’m so relieved, and now I can start making plans for my future career
I echo all the comments here saying don’t report it unless there is a clause in the contract that stipulates otherwise. My parents have been through job after job, being laid off, and brief periods of unemployment, and none of that seemed to matter to their bank when it came to paying off their mortgage (which they are still doing). As long as the mortgage is being paid and there’s nothing saying you have to be report unemployment/be employed throughout the duration of paying it, I think that all will be fine.