I just came through a real estate deal where I had to secure a mortgage and I have never had to go through so many hoops as I did for this one. I was told by my mortgage broker that since the credit crunch in the States this is now the new normal. They asked for every possible piece of paper that had anything remotely to do with our finances such as property taxes and full agreement of purchase and sale that we did for another deal we were doing. Our mortgage broker told us that this was the way things are right now. This makes it more critical then ever that buyers become pre-approved so they avoid any disappointment in case they can't get financing. Lenders are very nervous right now.