When she arrived in Chicago from Poland at age 19, Ania Kozera had just graduated from high school and was hoping to find more opportunities to succeed in the United States. After two years of babysitting and cleaning offices while attending college, she took a loan officer position serving the Polish community. “My English language was good enough to communicate, but I did not understand what ‘originating mortgages’ meant,” Kozera remembers.

That was in 2002. It took eight months for her to find a client and an agent to take a chance on her, but things got much better after that first deal. Getting increasingly more training and education and keeping at it day by day for 20 years has brought her to where she is today.

Where Kozera is today is running her own Rate branch with a reputation for finding solutions quickly and making seemingly impossible loans possible to the point that it’s not uncommon for new clients to ask if she can “also help with easy loans.” She and her team lean on experience and tenacity to take each client across the finish line. “I have an amazing, synced team that is trained to deliver no matter what because we all understand the importance of putting your business in someone else’s hands,” she says.

An 11-time Five Star Mortgage Professional, Kozera was most recently named a Scotsman Guide Top Originator, an honor that was especially meaningful because she was the only fluent Polish-speaking loan officer at that high level. She’s proud of her roots and where she comes from. This busy mom and avid sports fan is also proud of her pingpong skills, which she has passed along to her son.

Rate, Inc. is a private corporation organized under the laws of the state of Delaware. It has no affiliation with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture or any other government agency.