Since Feb.2007 the mortgage industry has changed and changed drastically. Every day it seems like the first day on the new job every day on the job.Each days seems like a day of new guidelines and restrictions, programs that were there yesterday are sometimes gone tomorrow.

With so many changes to lending practices more and more people who may have qualified for a mortgage as little as a few weeks ago no longer qualify.

In the recent past many Real Estate agents would take just about anyone out looking for a home with or without a simple Pre-Qualification letter (which was not even worth the paper it was printed on). They would look at houses not even knowing if the buyers would even get to the next stage of Pre-Approval, many rolled the dice and won! This was because there were hundreds of options out there for those with less than perfect credit, those with high ratio's, those who needed a no doc loan or stated income/stated asset loan and just about anyone with a pulse seemed to get a mortgage.

With the much needed changes in the mortgage industry every Real Estate Agent should demand a Pre-Approval letter, not a pre-qualification letter, this letter should be updated at least once every 3-4 weeks to make sure that your buyers still can get approved based on the program they were approved for initially. I have always been a fan of everyone getting a Pre-Approval (not a pre-qualification) prior to looking for a home, this is now the most important part of the process of home buying, unless you have a cash buyer of course.

Working closely with your buyer(s) and mortgage advisor is key in this market.

Here is a great article I read online about the mortgage changes: http://www.smartmoney.com/consumer/index.cfm?story=20080327-mortgages