Loans are a different breed now.  If your buyer decides to buy new furniture, a new car, or transfer their money around to 5 different accounts at the last minute that absolutely can kill a deal.  So many times loan agents are blamed for things out of their control.  Take for example...loan is approved and set to close, buyer needs to bring in an updated bank statement, and on that bank statement they decided to overdraw their account 10 times that month.  In this day and age and all the talk about how terrible banks are and how loans were given to people who never should of had one, why in the world would a bank approve a loan where the borrower clearly is having financial issues?  So while we all cringe when a deal falls though, so many times it's not the banks/loan officers fault; they're making much more sound decisions so hopefully we don't have to go through another market like this.