Home prices are cooling nationally and in the Illinois housing market – but there’s a silver lining to the downturn in prices.

More affordable real estate presents an opportunity for savvy shoppers in the Illinois housing market.

“Smart buyers will take advantage of weakening prices as interest rates peak, knowing that they can refinance when rates drop,” Jennifer Ames of Engel & Völkers Chicago tells Chicago Agent Magazine.

The median single-family home price in Illinois fell 2.8% from November 2021 to November 2022, according to the Illinois Association of Realtors. While sales volumes also have declined, homes are still selling swiftly. The average Illinois home sold in 30 days in November 2022, compared to 31 in November 2021.

With the numbers of sales projected to be low over the next few months, EACH and EVERY Borrower is important to the Broker. So, they need a lender, like LendSure Mortgage Corp., who will use a common-sense approach to get their borrower funded, and help the client close on their dream home on time.

Illinois remains an important state – it ranks sixth nationally in population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and fifth in state gross domestic product, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. And its housing market presents an oasis of affordability. For instance, in the second quarter of 2022, fully 79% of homes sold in the Peoria metro area were within reach of median-income families, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index.

To capitalize on the opportunities presented by Illinois’ real estate market, LendSure offers some hot loan products that will help you build your business:

• Bridge Loan Program. Many homeowners are equity-rich but they cannot access that equity to make a strong offer on a new home. That reality complicates homeowners’ hopes of moving to another house. In an effort to address this common challenge, LendSure offers bridge loans to help equity-rich homeowners. Our Bridge Financing program empowers borrowers to access equity from their current home to purchase a new home, with no monthly payments on the bridge financing. Borrowers can gain a competitive advantage in a hot housing market by making a non-contingent offer on the new property.
• Non-warrantable condos – From the high-rises downtown and along the lakefront to the converted industrial buildings in Wrigleyville, Chicago is full of condos. LendSure prides itself on being a flexible lender, one that qualifies borrowers based on common sense rather than rigid rules. The latest condo guidelines from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, introduced in early 2022 to address structural integrity of condo buildings, caused upheaval in the condo market. If you have a borrower whose conforming deal has been rejected or stalled because of the agencies’ onerous rules, we can help. LendSure’s common-sense rules allow for approvals of condo units that the agencies reject, including condotels.
• Expanded Investor DSCR – This program provides great offerings to Investors who are purchasing Single Family or Multi-Family dwellings, including 5-8 unit residential properties, in Chicagoland to increase their passive income. LendSure’s debt-service coverage ratio (DSCR) program is designed to be attractive to seasoned property investors. LendSure looks at market rents to qualify the property (instead of considering only currently rented units to support the loan amount), creating an easier path to approval. In other words, not all units need to be rented. LendSure underwrites the investment property based on both current and future rent. For an explanation of our DSCR loans, see this short video. Meanwhile, LendSure has expanded its DSCR program beyond the typical one to four units – we make DSCR loans on properties with up to eight units.

The LendSure Way

It’s simple. We make loans that make sense. We’re not in-the-box lenders. Of course, there are numbers and ratios and data to consider, but we know that behind every file, there’s an individual with a unique circumstance seeking a loan.  We work hard to offer our common-sense take on lending to borrowers seeking funding for the home of their dreams, another addition to their investment property portfolio or refinancing of a currently-owned property.

Are you ready to grow your business? Conforming loan approval guidelines can be restrictive, but we want to offer our mortgage broker partners the education, the tools, support and the guidance they need in order to say “yes” to more of their clients.  This ensures happy borrowers and opportunities for bottom line growth. What are you waiting for? Let’s get started!

Are you ready to benefit from a commonsense approach to lending?  Contact us today to learn more about non-QM loans and how partnering with LendSure Mortgage Corp. can help grow your bottom line.