You have priced your home to perfection. You have banished all the extraneous "junk." You have hired a stager so that your home shows like a model.

You have had broker tours and Open Houses.

Now, you have an acceptable offer. You've signed the papers. The appraiser has been thru the house. The buyers have done their inspection. The buyers drive by your house daily. They're so excited!

The loan with all its paperwork has gone into underwriting, where it sits for a week. But, out it comes at last. Good to Close! Ah, those magic words. Both the buyers and the sellers are packing.

But...(you knew there was a "but") the property tax report comes back almost $2000 higher due to a re-assessment. (The original annual tax bill is now $10,000 instead of $8,000.) So, the loan goes back to underwriting. And, nothing, now will now get this loan to the closing table.

Sound far out? Not really. The underwriters have been given tighter and tighter requirements and one of my loan officers told me that you need a FICO score of 700 today! Wow, I can remember in "the good old days" when a FICO of 550 would get you into a property!

Times have changed. And, today, every buyer should get a loan approval before looking at homes and then hope that no underwriting guidelines change.