At 77, Diamond Residential's Jan Leasure is IMBA's '26 Best in Biz

LIBERTYVILLE — With more than 2,500 loans closed and thousands of new homeowners minted over the last 30+ years, mortgage banker Jan Leasure’s numbers are impressive.

Also impressive? The figures 80 and 77 — the average number of hours a week she still invests in her craft, and her perpetually youthful number of trips around the sun, respectively.

It is her heart, however, that really steals the show. Just ask her processor and loan officer assistant, Daniela Goris-Gomez, who wrote the compelling nomination letter that helped Leasure, division president at Diamond Residential in Libertyville, clinch this year’s Best Mortgage Loan Officer/Best in Biz award from the Illinois Mortgage Bankers Association.

“Jan does not see borrowers as loan numbers, units, or another transaction toward her production totals. She sees people,” Goris-Gomez wrote. “She learns their stories. She understands their struggles. She celebrates their victories, worries about their challenges, and becomes genuinely invested in helping them get to the other side.”

Sometimes, when the numbers just don’t crunch and a buyer’s home ownership dream is at least temporarily out of reach, Leasure’s focus will change from mortgage banker to mentor. A former school teacher who switched to mortgage banking in her 40s, her educational skills are a boon to anyone with whom she works.

“She goes way above and beyond to the point that sometimes what she does isn’t even for the end result of securing a mortgage,” said Chicky Johnson of Lake Villa, a top-producing broker with REMAX Suburban who has known Leasure for decades. “Sometimes she works with people to repair their credit so that in the future they can get a home loan. She rewinds and starts from scratch so that eventually, down the road, we can get them to a different place.

“In those instances, she works for free,” Johnson continued. “If there’s no closing, we don’t get paid. Sometimes she’ll invest hours and hours and weeks and months of work that she doesn’t get compensated for. But it’s a point of pride with her. She is always giving back.”

These are among the reasons, Johnson said, it’s no surprise Leasure topped the list in this year’s Best in Biz award competition. Although Leasure is no stranger to industry accolades judging by the many award-filled shelves in her Milwaukee Avenue office, this particular honor had previously eluded her, prompting Johnson to joke that Leasure was the Susan Lucci/Erica Kane of the IMBA’s October awards dinner.

“She’s been in the field such a long time, she’s one of the GOATS,” Johnson said. “She’s ageless, by the way. She looks the same to me as she did when I was a kid.”

Maria Vallejo of Cary also was unsurprised by Leasure’s newest industry honor. Leasure helped Vallejo secure a complex Debt Service Coverage Ratio, or DSCR, loan to buy a three-flat with her son in Chicago. “That woman is a vampire,” Vallejo said. “She never sleeps. She would not stop until things got right.”

For Leasure, rising to a challenge is like breathing. It’s a necessity, especially in an industry that cycles through rising and falling interest rates.

“Right now, our industry is suffering,” she said, noting recent rate increases. “Especially those who are first-time homebuyers, they are afraid they can’t afford a house.

“Anyone who is really interested in a house needs to work with someone who can help, with someone who believes they can achieve their goal,” Leasure said. “I’ve been doing this a long time, and I believe in people.”

To reach Leasure, call 847-293-2111 or send email to jan.leasure@drmconline.com.