Financial Overhaul to Make Mortgages Safer but Harder to Get

Now that Senate and House negotiators have reached a compromise on new financial regulations, we know what will happen to the mortgage industry if the bill passes and how it will impact your ability to buy a house. Those freewheeling days of no-money-down, liar loans are dead. Instead you'll find more paperwork is needed to prove you truly can afford to make the payments.

If the final bill passes both houses of Congress -- still not a certainty, since Republicans are likely to try to block it -- homebuyers seeking a mortgage will face new minimum underwriting standards for home mortgages. The details of those standards are not yet available, but you can be sure that no-money-down loans will no longer be available, even in the private mortgage marketplace.

These no-money-down loans that were approved using stated income -- in other words, borrowers did not have to prove income -- will be history and against the law. Instead, lenders will have to verify borrower income to make a loan. Self-employed people will definitely find it much harder to buy a house, especially if they don't have two years of income tax filings to prove their income.