Mortgage loans still are available to most potential homebuyers despite the ongoing credit crunch, some real estate professionals say.

“The people out there locally are the creme de la creme (the best),” said Linda Brock, an agent with Prudential RealtyCenter whose 2007 transactions totaled just under $50 million. “There’s financing available for (these buyers).”

Ival Goldstein, a developer-builder, said he’s not seen a problem this past year in mortgage availability.

“We’ve had no problem with people who have a good credit score,” Mr. Goldstein said. “They require a larger down payment now. It’s a little tougher to get a loan. But the money’s available.”

Mr. Goldstein is the developer of Windstone and Whisper Creek at Windstone, where homes sell in the $300,000 to $400,000 range.

One lender also said that money is still available despite tighter lending standards.

“Lenders are eager to make loans,” said Keith Sanford, executive vice president of First Tennessee Bank in Chattanooga. “We have lots of money, but demand is slow.”

Others echo Mr. Goldstein and Mr. Sandford’s statements that loan requirements have gotten tighter.

“They’re covering the bases,” said Sabrena Turner, broker-owner of Help-U-Sell Today Realty. “These are things we have not seen in the past.”

Lenders are taking extreme positions on rules and are also being more picky about the condition of homes, Ms. Turner said. That’s to make sure the borrower is credit worthy and the house is worth lending on. In some cases, lenders are asking for second opinions on appraisals, she said.

Lenders are asking for structural inspections, roof inspections and documentation from previous termite inspections. The tighter restrictions are mostly with loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, she said, which have low down payments.

Mr. Sanford said he has not heard of increased emphasis on termite inspections. Inspections and appraisals are important because lenders want to make sure of the house’s value and ability to hold value, which also protects the homeowner, he said.

The shift from easy credit to tighter regulations needed to happen, said Bobby Allison, vice president of American Home Mortgage Co. People had been getting loans who should not have because they could not afford the homes, he said.

“Lenders are tightening up on properties,” he said. “That’s their security.”

People with good credit can still qualify for a loan, Mr. Allison said. A score of 720 qualifies a person for mortgage insurance and loan approval, he said.

But the tightening of lending standards is happening on almost a daily basis, which is preventing sales from closing, some Realtors say.

“The rules have changed, and they change daily, almost hourly,” said Darlene Brown, co-owner of Real Estate Partners Chattanooga. “You think you have something ready to close and they call you the day before, even several hours before, and say my underwriter has relooked (at) this loan and we need (more information). I say well, we didn’t need this yesterday. ‘Well, the rules have changed,’ they say.”

Potential home buyers in Dayton, Tenn., are having trouble getting loans, said Teresa Boyer-Young, broker-owner of Best Realty GMAC. The realty firm, which has been the top office in sales volume the last five years in Dayton, she said, has branched out with a new office that opened last week in Chattanooga at 5959 Shallowford Road.

Mrs. Boyer-Young said she is working with two investors who have good credit but cannot get a loan despite having applied at several banks. Some lenders are limiting investors to owning four houses, she said.

However, Mrs. Boyer-Young said that the current lending environment is better than the alternative of providing easy credit to people who didn’t need loans, which helped create the current economic crisis.

“I think it’s where it should have been to begin with,” she said. “But it’s very difficult to adjust.”

Some builders, like many homebuyers, are having trouble accessing credit, said Tim Bond, a local home builder.

Mr. Bond said he is unable to get construction loans despite having good credit. He has only three houses for sale, in the $350,000 to $400,000 range, he said, whereas in the past he had as many as 10 houses at once. When sales slowed down more than a year ago, he cut back to owning no more than five homes at a time. He would like to start on more houses but recently could not obtain a loan when he applied. He said he is hopeful of activity picking up soon.

There were 731 homes started in Hamilton County in the first three quarters of 2008, less than half the 1,491 started in the same period a year ago, according to The Market Edge Inc., a company that tracks residential construction.

Construction loans are still available despite the building slowdown and tighter lending standards, Mr. Sanford said.

Deals for new and existing homes that hit a lending roadblock can still be saved with a little “finesse,” said Brandi Pearl Thompson, an agent with ReMax Properties North. She said she has seen the most trouble on loans of less than $200,000. But those roadblocks can be navigated around by finding an experienced lender who has worked in a challenging market before and understands how debts are structured and all the other ins and outs of a loan, she said. That’s where experience pays off, she said.

“It takes someone who’s been around a while,” Ms. Thompson said. “Markets are cyclical. This isn’t the first time we’ve been in a market like this, and it won’t be the last.”

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