Unfortunately, some of the terms in the mortgage industry are not applied uniformly. My favorite example concerns a mortgage that supposedly has no closing costs.

If you read my column from last week, you would know that I was talking about how hard it is right now to find a good fix and flip home.

When I came out of college, I got a job selling cars and some of my fellow car salesmen were involved in the old “bait and switch” tactics of selling.

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.

We have all watched and been affected by the rapidly changing landscape of lending over the last two years. Sometimes, the new restrictions and precautions can be maddening and sometimes, they are just laughable.

Last week, I started a story about people trying to get some relief on their mortgage. I called my mortgage lender, Wells Fargo, and pretended that I needed some help.

As almost everyone is aware, the good old days of easy rate and term refinances are mostly gone. A double whammy of tighter underwriting standards and falling home values have trapped some borrowers.

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the fact that a lot of real estate deals are falling apart over inspection items.

The most dreaded part of applying for a mortgage is all the paperwork. Mortgage documentation requirements are more stringent than ever and every “T” must be crossed and every “I” dotted.

You do not have to be Bill Gates to get a mortgage, however, mortgage requirements have tightened up considerably. Unless you are a vet applying for a VA mortgage, 100% financing is gone.