A divorce mortgage is a refinance transaction that removes the departing spouse from the current debt secured by the home or other real estate. The spouse retaining the property refinances the loan that is currently in both parties name with a loan in their name alone.

Last week, I broke down the various price ranges in real estate and what we might expect for the coming year. I mentioned that the 400-800K price range might be the toughest price range to sell for a variety of reasons.

When our automobile needs a tune-up, it provides us with plenty of clues: hard to start, rough running, poor gas mileage, etc. But when a mortgage needs a tune-up it gives no warning.

About half of the mortgages I will close in December are for people who have an existing FHA mortgage and thought they could not refinance because of all the misinformation floating around about the current mortgage environment.

If you have been following this column all month, you would know that I have been writing about the fix and flip business as well the fix and rent business. If you would like to re-read any of those columns, you can do so at www.coloradodreamhouse.com/news.

Freddie Mac reported last week that the average on the 30-year fixed mortgage rose sharply from 3.94% to 4.12%, which according to the National Bureau of Economic Research was the lowest rate ever.

Most of the time the symbiotic relationship between real estate agents and lenders is more like the movie Love Story than War of the Roses, with a kumbaya moment at the closing that often turns into a mutual admiration society for all involved.

Nature abhors a vacuum. With the tightening in the mortgage market we have seen an increase in portfolio and private, also known as hard money, loans to fill the void created since subprime mortgage products have become extinct.

Has it become easier to get a mortgage in the last three years? Not from what I am seeing. Whether it is a conventional, FHA, or VA mortgage, in most instances, it is harder to obtain a mortgage than it was just three years ago.

Unless you are a yokel, borrow local. Near the end of the last century, I was at a mortgage conference in Spokane, Washington. The conference had mortgage professionals from across the nation and was a great opportunity to see what was going on in the industry.