Mortgage Money
Contrary to what you may have heard, it's still available, and at pretty good rates. My pal Nancy is in the process of refinancing (oh, those wonderful student loans!) with my own firm's mortgage banker, Mark Hawkins (203 257-5805) and approval was almost instant. I'm not flogging Ravies Raveis (tough when your boss points out that you spelled the name of your own G--D--- firm wrong) here and I certainly don't get a piece of the action (illegal and, by odd coincidence, unethical) but a number of large real estate firms have, out of self defense I suppose, pooled their cash and struck a deal with those banks that are still lending. The firms act as mortgage bankers rather than brokers and loans are getting done (for non-real estate customers as well as buyers, fyi).

What's changed, then? Nothing, if you got a loan 10 years ago, plenty if you borrowed last year. Credit score should be over 700 (there are exceptions, but 700 is a good starting point) you're definitely going to be putting 20% and perhaps even 30% down, documentation of income and assets is required - no more "no-doc" loans - appraisals may be tighter, and so forth. In short, the bankers have adopted the Who's credo as their own: "We won't be fooled again!" Of course, when it comes to reviewing the banks's own behavior over the past decade, one might be tempted to ask who was fooling whom, but that's for another day.