Linda A. Scott, senior residential mortgage specialist with Wintrust Mortgage, has many advantages as a lender. For one thing, she offers a full product menu suiting first-time buyers, luxury clients, veterans, FHA clients and many others. For another, she serves the entire Chicagoland market, as well as helping borrowers snag properties like vacation and forever homes in Florida, Wisconsin, Indiana and other states.

But probably the biggest advantage that Scott’s customers get by going with her is the benefit of 40 — that’s F-O-R-T-Y — years of experience as a lender. Indeed, she has seen and weathered just about every market one can imagine. Having started at age 21 and won awards since the 1980s, she has solutions for just about every challenge homebuyers face.

“I like to be personable and build relationships with my borrowers,” Scott says. “I try to make them feel like they’re my only client.” Knowing the stress of putting together a deal, she is relatable to buyers, Realtors and personal bankers that often refer people to her. “Realtors have told me that when they see my name, they know the deal will close,” she relays.

Years of experience and vast product knowledge mean that Scott never has to give up. Not that she would, anyway. “I am a problem-solver through and through,” she laughs. That resolve has helped earn her many awards, like multiple Millionaire’s Club trips from WestAmerica Mortgage, a 1983 Rookie of the Year award from WestAmerica, Wintrust’s Honors Circle and, most recently, the Five Star Professional award.

Today, clients mostly have the same compliments they’ve always had about Scott’s service, calling it “concierge-level” and applauding her on-time closings, coaching through the process and calm nature. An active community member, volunteer, local choir performer and all-around go-getter, Scott says her secret is simple: “2020 was a challenge, but I knew my goals, and I made manifest and made them happen. It’s just what I do.”