Quote Originally Posted by TahoeDirtGirl View Post
I remember back in the 90s when I bought my first house, they dug up everything on you, wanted all kinds of info, and it was much tougher. When I bought my current house in 2000, I think I just produced a w2 and tax statements for two years. It was over before I knew it.
We experienced the same thing. I remember my friends moaning about having bounced a check in college and how it was coming back to haunt her when she bought her house in 92!

We bought our first home in 2003 and we basically just signed a piece of paper...it was SO easy even though the price was kind of a stretch for us. Same thing in 2004 when we bought in NC.

We just closed on a house here in OR last month. VERY different experience. We are actually now buying a house that is very much well, well below our means and yet we had to dot every single 'i' and cross every single 't' on the paperwork. They even questioned the dates on a transfer of our downpayment. It left one bank on the 22nd and got credited at the second bank on the 21st (due to a midnight transfer and a difference of time zones) and THIS held up our approval! They wanted a 'reason' for it and proof!! All in all, in some ways the extra scrutiny felt totally unnecessary and yet it made us feel like the industry was finally getting back to the way it SHOULD have been all along.