Create professional development programs that help REALTORS® strengthen their businesses.
Protect private property rights and promote the value of REALTORS®.
Advance ethics enforcement programs that increase REALTOR® professionalism.
Protect REALTORS® by providing legal guidance and education.
Stay current on industry issues with daily news from Illinois REALTORS®, network with other professionals, attend a seminar, and keep up with industry trends through events throughout the year.
REALTORS® can help clients improve credit scores. Karen Ziska, sales manager and mortgage loan originator at Homebridge Financial Services in Schaumburg, offers five suggestions to make lenders happy.
- Work with the right loan officer. Find someone who can provide a full mortgage analysis and can educate clients about utilization, ratios and payment histories.
- Disputed items could cause inaccurate credit scores. Lenders may require loans to be reviewed with another level of scrutiny. Remember medical collections are not factored into debt ratios.
- Settle credit judgments. Some lenders may accept repayment plans once three payments have been made to resolve an issue.
- Clients with low credit scores may need to lower their utilization, open new credit card accounts or add tradelines to their reports. Tradelines can be purchased to increase credit scores. Ensure that your clients understand their debt-to-income and their housing ratios.
- Clients should always keep their payments consistent and on time. This is not the time to slough off or forget monthly Visa payments. To make things easier, clients can set up automatic payments through their checking accounts or one credit card.
