Buying a home usually requires getting a mortgage. Great. According to the news, that’s nearly impossible now.

Hardly. When you look past the information about the barn door closing after all the nasty sub prime horses got out of the stable, getting a mortgage is not any different now than it has ever been. To put it in today’s vernacular, lending now is not unlike computer programs. If we’ve just entered the world of Web.2, mortgages are in Lending.v.1 Back to basics, baby. It always made sense. Still does today.

So, if you want to qualify for a mortgage, you want to look at some fundamental concepts of your finances. Lenders will want to to know that:

1. You have a source of income

2. You have a track record of paying your bills on time

3. You have some residual cash to cover expenses

It’s all really pretty simple. And for all the real and dire news about loans that were made for the wrong reasons to the really wrong people, the fact is that if you’re a qualified buyer, the interest rates are good and you will be able to get a decent mortgage.

I’m not saying that the news is histrionic. The economic reports aren’t making this stuff up. Things are really wild out there. REALLY wild. But, like Clemenza says in “The Godfather”, referring to the upcoming war between the families - these things have happen every 10 years or so. This “correction” is particularly harsh, but things will get back to normal.

In the meantime, those who keep their heads - and who’ve been paying their bills on time - are the people reputable mortgage lenders want to see coming through their doors.

..It just feels that way.

I’ve been a Realtor since 1987 - with the odd break for childbirth and one ill-advised foray into the corporate world - and I’m here to say that I’ve never seen a scene like I’ve seen in the last month or so. It’s a site! A hot mess.

So, what does this mean to erstwhile home buyers? That buying a home is a risky endeavor? That the chance has passed you by? That you were silly for even thinking that buying was for you? That owning a home is for Grown Ups?

The answers are, in order: yes, no, no and yes.

Yes, home buying is risky. So is car buying. And iPod buying. You lay your money out and encounter risk. But the ridiculous lending practices that wormed their way into our otherwise conservative financial culture notwithstanding, buying your own home remains a good idea.

Why? For one very good reason, one has to pay to live somewhere. One might as well pay for one’s OWN mortgage. Because - believe me - if you’re paying rent, you’re paying someone’s mortgage. A landlord undoubtedly has a mortgage. And the tenants pay it.

The other is that there is really a great feeling to walking into your own home. Your own walls. Your own floors. If you want to paint your bedroom you can go ahead and do it. Feel like planting hydrangea in the front yard? Go for it. Do you love pale green shag carpet? Install it. (Then look at the calendar and realize it’s no longer 1972, but install it all the same)

The nauseating news about huge mortgage companies going belly up has nothing to do with the benefits of home ownership. It has to do with poor lending practices and fraud. An ugly word, but accurate.

The old, boring standards for what it takes to make a mortgage work for you still stand. There are sensible lending requirements that any good, reputable lender will look for. And that you should require of yourself - it just doesn’t make sense to live beyond your means - and if you can meet those requirements things are not so scary. Interest rates for conventional loans are still really good - around 6.5% - and all the tax benefits and emotional benefits of home ownership still apply.

The news is wild. But home buying isn’t. Exciting? Yes. But “wild” it doesn’t have to be.

If you think that being in the market for real estate right now is akin to being in the market for cyanide tablets, it’s understandable. But it’s not time to go into our bunkers and turn out the lights. Not even almost time.

The news about mortgages, foreclosures and the oft-mentioned sub-prime market is horrendous. And it’s everywhere. As it should be. This is important, even historical stuff. We are coming off the greatest increase is real estate values in decades. Maybe in forever. And the correction is just as dramatic as the escalation.

But the problem has not been caused by real estate itself. The common sense rules of lending and borrowing money never changed.

They were just ignored.

Not by everyone. Just by enough people - and people who knew better - that the shake out is having far reaching impact.

The line said by Gordon Gekko in the 1987 movie Wall Street, “Greed is good”, is famous. And it’s wrong.

As it relates to real estate over the past 5 years or so, greed led many people to make a lot of money quickly. But the foundation for those real estate transactions and the mortgage loans that financed them was rotten. And as we in the real estate world know, a rotten foundation leads to cracks, leaks and collapse.

So, my children, what’s to be done? Here are some of the basics that are boring, but effective:

1. Don’t borrow more than you can afford to pay back
2. Pay your bills on time
3. Save for a down payment (the day’s of 100% mortgages may go the way of the rotary dial telephone)
4. Pay your bills on time
5. Pay your bills on time
6. And, finally, PAY YOUR BILLS ON TIME.

The bottom line is, all real estate is local. Greensboro and the Triad area of North Carolina did not have the 15%-30% (?!?!?) increases in property values as did some places. Consequently, we haven’t had values decline. Boring, but good.

And if all real estate is local, all home-buying is REALLY local. Like, in your lap. If you have decent credit (see rules 2,4,5 & 6 above) and you want to buy a home - have at it. The water’s fine. Rates for conventional fixed rate loans are good, there’s plenty of inventory and the factors that have always made home ownership a great thing still exist.

If you have questions about the news, post a question. If I don’t know the answer, I have a lot of really smart friends. I’ll get you a response.

And pay your bills on time.