Q: My husband is quitting his job to stay home w/our three small children (we have twins!). But in two years, we would like to move and have his new job’s salary considered when we apply for a loan. I heard he has to be working for at least six months for his income to be considered. Is that correct?

A: You and your stay-at-home-dad-to-be hubby exemplify the flexible family roles of a modern American family. Kudos to you both for thinking ahead and being strategic about the road ahead. Let’s get right to your questions:

1. Six months should work. Based on current guidelines, which are subject to change, most lenders require that a gap of employment longer than three months be followed up by at least six months of employment before the income of the borrower with the employment gap can be considered toward qualifying for the home loan.

Lenders will still require your last two years of income tax returns, but will generally look to your average monthly income from the last few months so long as they are provided with verification that your husband’s been back to work for at least 180 days.

2. There are caveats. The six-month greenlight assumes that your husband goes back to work in the same field as he worked in before he took time off to stay home with the kids. Most lenders have a two-year “same line of work” requirement; the employment gap doesn’t disqualify his income from counting, so long as he’s been in the same line of work for at least two years.

If your husband is looking to change lines of work, he will need to prove that he’s been in the field for two years before they will count his income. Time spent enrolled in an educational course does count toward the two-year “same line of work” requirement.

So, for example, if he was a firefighter, then went to law school during his employment gap, then went back to work as an attorney for six months, the time spent in law school would count toward the required two years in the legal field, and the six months of lawyer work would allow his income to count toward your qualifications.

If, on the other hand, he was a firefighter, took two years off, then went to work in human resources, he would probably need to work for two years in the HR field before his income would count toward your loan qualifications.

3. And a few more caveats. Assuming he’s going back to work in the same line of work as he was in before, the lender will likely use only his base salary to count toward your loan qualifications. Commissions, overtime, bonuses and other employment compensation beyond the base salary cannot be counted toward your ability to repay your mortgage without a two-year paper trail documenting the extra income. Similarly, if he goes back to work in his own business, he might be required to document his self-employment income via two years of adjusted gross income as shown on federal tax returns, for that income to be counted toward your loan qualifications.

Tara-Nicholle Nelson is author of “The Savvy Woman’s Homebuying Handbook” and “Trillion Dollar Women: Use Your Power to Make Buying and Remodeling Decisions.” Tara is also the Consumer Ambassador and Educator for real estate listings search site Trulia.com. Ask her a real estate question online or visit her website, www.rethinkrealestate.com.

DEAR BARRY: Your articles often recommend that home inspectors be hired to inspect brand-new homes. If a home has just been inspected and approved by the building department, what’s the point of hiring a private home inspector? –John

DEAR JOHN: The answer to your question is worth repeating. Here are the five essential differences between a building department inspection and a professional home inspection:

1. A building inspection is strictly for building code compliance, but it is possible for a home to be poorly built and still comply with code. Home inspections deal with all kinds of substandard conditions, including those that do not involve code, such as poorly fitted doors, poorly mitered trim, missing tile grout, missing shelves in cabinets, sloped floors, loose toilets and faucets, etc.

2. A building inspection usually lasts about 15 to 30 minutes, while a home inspection lasts from 2 1/2 to four hours. This is because many more things are inspected and tested in the course of a home inspection.

3. Building inspectors simply look at the completed construction. They do not test the operational condition of fixtures and appliances. Faucets are not turned on; drains are not tested for leaks; appliances are not operated; smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are not tested; and so on.

4. Gas and electrical services to a home are not turned on until the final inspection is completed and the home is signed off. The building inspector can approve the appearance of the wiring and gas piping, but nothing is tested as part of the final inspection because you cannot test fixtures without gas or electricity.

Home inspectors arrive when utilities have been turned on. They plug testers into outlets to ensure grounding, correct polarity, and ground fault protection. They operate built-in fixtures and appliances such as dishwashers, garbage disposals, lights, ceiling fans, exhaust fans, electric ovens, garage door openers, and more. They also test the gas-burning fixtures such as forced-air furnaces, water heaters, gas-log fireplaces, and cooking appliances.

5. Building inspectors perform a walk-through inspection only. They do not crawl through subareas or attics, and they do not walk on roofs. Home inspectors do all of these things, enabling them to identify construction defects that routinely go unnoticed during a municipal inspection.

Veteran home inspectors know that all brand-new homes have defects of various kinds, usually minor but sometimes major. Examples include broken roof tiles; missing roof flashing; attics without insulation; furnaces improperly installed in attics; congested drainpipes; drains that leak; nontempered glass next to bathtubs and showers; inoperative GFCI outlets; ungrounded outlets; drain vents that terminate in attics; chimneys in contact with combustible materials in attics; loose safety rails; disconnected air ducts under the house; PVC discharge pipes on water heater relief valves; and this list could go on and on.

These are the reasons why people who buy brand-new homes should hire an independent home inspector. A home inspection gives homebuyers the best opportunity to take advantage of the builder’s warranty. Bypassing an inspection leaves undisclosed defects to be discovered at a later date, after the builder’s warranty has expired.