1. Lenders have such little appetite to lend that they are cherry-picking who they lend to: According to my personal reseach only one in 20 mortgage applications where the person applying has the 25% deposit are going through to completion. What does that mean for the NMD borrower?

2. Credit rating: Credit reports are now scrutinised more than ever before by lenders. Any missed payments and they will think twice about giving you a mortgage offer.

3. Source of deposit: Most lenders now ask for the source and proof of deposit. They are suspicious of where this is coming from and now check in more detail.

3. Demise of the deal packager: Many NMD deals used to be pushed through by packagers who oversaw the whole process and used a "friendly" valuer who they could "influence". There are no deal packagers left as far as I am aware.

4. Brokers no longer allowed to choose which valuer goes out: Brokers used to be able to select a valuer from a "panel" of approved valuers. This meant they could work with a "friendly" valuer. This practice has now largely stoppped and many lenders are using an in-house valuer who cannot be "influenced".

5. Property Valuation: RICS valuers have been briefed how to spot signs that someone is trying to get a false valuation. If in doubt, they will down-value. By law, they have to value the property at the purchase price, or market value, whichever is the lower. By lying to the valuer about the price, or not disclosing the net price or how the deal is being structured, you are committing mortgage fraud!

6. Rental Valuation: Rents are dropping, making it harder to get a deal to stack. A down-valuation on the rent will stop any deal in its tracks.

7. Contesting a down valuation: Until recently, you used to be able to contest a down valuation by supplying comparables. These are now no longer accepted. The decision of the valuer generally stands.

8. Solicitors and lenders require full disclosure to all parties: If there is any evidence of non-disclosure, or the lender gets wind of anything fishy, they will withdraw the mortgage offer. This happened to one person I know the day before completion, and that person has been left on a bridging loan of £2K per month. It is extremely risky to buy anything on a bridging loan for the above reason.

9. Seasoning of title: Lenders now require you to have proof of ownership of the property for a minimum of six months before remortgaging or re-financing. This means bridging loans are no longer a vehicle for purchasing NMD.

10. Education: The internet has now provided education and transparency to allow people to understand the truth about NMD deals. This can only be a positive thing for the property industry as NMD was simply not sustainable and was largely a factor in causing the first credit crunch.

Conclusion: No matter how positive a mental attitude, how many courses you go on, how many NMD mentoring programmes you join, how many times you pay for a valuation, if you don't have the 25% deposit, it is very unlikely that you will be able to buy a property. Sorry for the cold hard truth. Yes, sometimes life it tough and it hurts, but better find out now than waste your money and time on something that is defunct.

Do other tribe members agree that there is a definitive decrease in activity on the NMD deal front. Is the message that there are no legitimate ways of doing NMD deals finally sinking in? Are the reports of more and more people being jailed for mortgage fraud putting people off talking openly about how they are doing it? With the transparency of the web, only the most foolish person would post on a forum advertising their NMD scheme!

We also know that the CML and the FSA are using forsensic accountants to see which brokers are doing a lot of business in these challenging times, and doing audits on people buying a lot of property to establish the legitimacy of the money trail and where the deposits are coming from.

Are the purveyors of NMD schemes changing their business model or have they just gone underground? Will they all start talking about lease options as the "new NMD"?

I personally believe that the legitimate NMD deal was dead and buried in April 2008, when Mortgage Express withdrew their bridge/same day remortgage product. Is this finally having an impact on the NMD industry?

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