W2 Conventional Lending Requirements

[Bradley M.]

So I keep seeing that most lenders want two years of steady W2 income in order to qualify for a mortgage. I have 2 years of tax returns, one year was 12k (gross) and the other was 14k (gross), which would most likely not qualify me for any mortgage. At the end of this year/beginning of next year (under ideal circumstances) I will be in a new job making 40k/yr (gross). I have been under the impression that once I get into that new job that the lender would base my pre-approval on the income I would now be making (40k/yr) instead of the past two years until today when someone challenged me on that impression by saying the lender would base the pre-approval amount on my past two years of income. Am I correct that it would be based on the 40k/yr or would the pre-approval be based on my past two years of income?