In the old days when my real estate license was young, It took a lot of time to get a loan approved.  You told your favorite loan officer all about how much money you made and your savings and debt, then they would begin the laborious task of verifying everything you told them.

They'd order a credit report that would take a while to come in.  Days!  Even weeks!  Then they would send out employment verifications to your boss and account verifications to each of your banks and creditors.  It was not unusual to need a sixty day period to settle, because it could take that long to get your loan approved.

Fast forward about twenty five years. 

It takes about a nanosecond to to get a routine loan approved, especially if the lender has in-house underwriters.  While you're on the phone with your favorite lender, every detail of your personal finances appears on his or her computer screen with the entry of your name and Social Security number!   If you are self-employed like I am, they might have to wait for me to fax over my tax returns. 

So, is this a good thing?  On one hand, it certainly speeds up the approval process.  On the other, I'm not totally comfortable with having so much private information so easily accessible in one place! 

I can remember a time when privacy was something we thought was important.  Now it's value has been reduced to almost nothing. 

We hand over our "very important customer" cards when we check out at the grocery store so there is a record someplace of every green bean, can of cat food or frozen pizza we ever purchased.  I knew a woman who was into cyberflirting on Match.com who ran a credit and background check before she went out with someone she met online - maybe not a terrible idea, but it's a little scary that she could do it!

Should we even think about trying to put the genie back in the bottle?  Or do we even care anymore?

It really is nice to have clients get their financing approved quickly!