[Olderguy]

Not any different from the mortgage industry after the crash of 2008....We were doing 80/20 home purchases stated income no money down. Option arms paid 4 points on the back end. Enter regulation, licensing and compliance in all states. They introduced the national NMLS and state specific licenses as well. You needed both to be a loan officer. States would come out and audit your operations for compliance with regulations. In my opinion it is the necessary way of things to come. I passed the NMLS on my first try but many of my colleagues failed three times and then had to wait 6 months to retake the test. Most brokers had a license where people would operate under which wasn't legal. You had to have a license to pull credit and quote rates for prospects. The way around it would be "my loan officer ran your credit and you are at ---" and "my loan officer said you would qualify for _____".

Don't kid yourself...everybody lies in this business. My former boss lied more than he told the truth. He would not let me talk to people because I was too honest. Maybe one out of a hundred brokers is a loan officer. The rest are just trying to get the most points and know nothing about loans and what might be in the best interests of the prospect/client. And most don't care. Justifies regulation in the industry.

The short term answer is go through a super broker that is licensed in the state and pay him 2 points or whatever on the deal.