Is your Loan Officer Licensed? How to tell if you are working with a clerk or a licensed Loan Officer. There is a BIG difference YOU need to understand

Minneapolis, MN: Recent changes to the lending industry requires all loan officers to have a tracking number, known as an NMLS number (Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry). It should be displayed on their business cards, E-Mail, web sites, all correspondence, and most loan documents.

The display of the NMLS number may make many believe the Loan Officer is licensed. Sadly, this isn't true, and working with an unlicensed, untrained clerk can cause you many headaches and hassles.

LICENSED Loan Officers must have pre-employment education, must pass difficult State and Federal tests, must pass criminal background checks, must submit their personal credit reports to the state for review, and must take yearly continuing education classes.

Application clerks, Loan Officers at Banks, Credit Unions, or Mortgage Companies owned by a bank are NOT REQUIRED to be licensed, and are NOT required to do anything to be assist you. No education, no tests, no anything. They could have been flipping burgers yesterday, and calling themselves a Loan Officer today. Yikes!

I think the Loan Officer choice is clear. Who would YOU rather be working with on the largest financial transaction of your life? A fully trained, licensed, fingerprinted, and background checked Loan Officer - or the untrained, untested, unlicensed, and simply registered clerk at a bank?

CHECK YOUR LOAN OFFICER OUT on the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry at http://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org

It is hard to determine if the Loan Officer is simply registered, versus licensed. When looking up a loan officer, you have to go to the bottom of their NMLS identification page and look under State Licenses/Registrations or Federal Registration heading.

• A LICENSED Loan Officer will say "State Licenses/Registrations" and will have one or more STATES listed with licensing information.
• An UNLICENSED, but simply REGISTERED Clerk / Loan Officer will say "Federal Registration" and the something like Federal Mortgage Loan Originator.

Finally, THIS IS A CLEAR REASON why people should follow my #1 mortgage shopping rule: GOOGLE THE NAME OF YOUR LOAN OFFICER before allowing them to handle the largest financial transaction of your life, and be sure to verify if they are licensed!