Okay, perhaps that's a little TOO much information! Perhaps you really don't need to know what splash of color your loan officer is bestowing on his or her bloomers on any given day.But what you SHOULD know is who your loan officer IS.

Let's see....scum bucket, slime ball, scammer, fraud frog...any of these ring a bell? They do to a whole lot of people, as our industry has been historically speckled with less than scrupulous loan officers committing fraud and scamming the innocent. Unfortunately, those LO endearments have, in many cases, been very well founded. (And how embarrassing that Minnesota and the rest of the Midwest have some of highest percentages of all this nastiness.)

What do you do? Protect yourself by doing your homework.

You have never been in a better position to check out the color of your loan officer's undies. With social media, licensing requirements and the good ole world wide web, you can get a pretty good recon on the LO you intend on working with. Pure attrition (as I wrote about on Who is Going To Write These Loans?) has definitely wiped out much of the riff raff, but those little stinkers still loom. Whether you are a consumer or real estate agent, it is imperative to check 'em out.

To that end, here is a list of ways to get that done:

o? NMLS. Is your loan officer licensed? Remember, as of January 1, 2011, it is REQUIRED. No license, no ability to write a mortgage.

o? Linked In. Great place to check out your loan officer's resume.

o? Facebook. Whoa! This is a real "personal" insight into your LO's world.

o? Google. For heaven sakes, this is one of the easiest ways to check out your loan officer...just type in his/her name on the search box. What pages come up? If you see your loan officer's name right next to the words San Quentin, you may wanna think twice.

o? BBB. Who does your loan officer work for? What is their company's rating? More importantly, check to see if there is a list of consumer complaints.

o? Twitter. Is your loan officer tweeting about the next local club they are partying at or are they providing tweets that would be relevant to our profession?

o? FHA Neigborhood Watchlist. This is a policing site that allows HUD/FHA to oversee lender activities and performance and publish this information to the public. Good stuff!

There. That should give you a robust start into your loan officer recon search. I just showed the colors of my knickers! Can yours? And nope, mine are not the lime green polka-dotted kind, either.

612-363-1106 / [email protected] / www.sherrisherpy.com