Whether it was your big brother loaning you lunch money because you lost yours on the way to school, or your mom and dad pitching in toward your first car, family members long have been the lenders of first and last resort. That goes for buying a home, too, especially for that first home you can’t quite afford on your own.

Here’s the catch, though: Under Colorado law, only your parents, and not any other family members, can step in and help out. Anyone else first has to jump through the hoops of becoming a licensed mortgage loan originator. That’s right; your well-heeled uncle; your grandmother who keeps money in a mattress; even your older brother who loaned you the lunch money – and now is an e-commerce tycoon; none can legally act as a lender unless they first meet licensing requirements that include 20 hours of approved course work.

Senate Bill 127, introduced in the upper chamber by Sen. Jack Tate, R-Centennial, and approved unanimously this week by the Senate’s Business, Labor & Technology Committee, would ease those regulatory constraints. The bill would extend the current mortgage-originator exemption for parents to any family member; deciding who is and isn’t an eligible family member would be left to the state Board of Mortgage Loan Originators.

Said Tate in a press statement released by the Senate GOP:

“If we’re going to let parents help their children finance a home, without having to get licensed as a loan originator, why not let an uncle do the same for a niece, or a sister do the same for a brother? Our goal here is to expand alternative home financing options, by not limiting the loan originator exemption to just a parent helping a child, but to include other family members who might want to play this role.”