I was recently speaking to a loan officer I met who worked in Arizona, named Anne.  She had been a successful for the better part of her 7 year career, having decided to jump into the mortgage game at the beginning of the mortgage boom we all experienced, and admittedly enjoyed, even though it lead to where we are today.  However this young woman was a brass go-getter.  Her motivation was the money.  (Which is not to say it was simply greed).  None-the-less, she made the move from being an assistant golf pro, to learning about mortgage origination during a three-day course at the local Real Estate School.   Having passed the final exam, (which I believe was graded on a curve so that all would pass), she was able to send her resume out to multitudes of mortgage companies, looking to add on to their commission based army of hustlers.   She seemingly fit in great with the rest of the group.  Starting with friends and family, and getting referral after referral as rates continued to drop, she soon found herself in a prospering new business.  Then of course; it all came to a halt.   Now with most lenders, this marked a point in time where the professionals moved forward and the hobby goers, packed up and moved on to their next gig.  As for Anne from Arizona, she decided stick it out and change her tactics.  Her new focus: Reverse Mortgages.

 

Reverse Mortgages has just started becoming available about the time she entered the industry.  Most loan officers had some vague idea about them, with some of the main impressions being that they were a bit harder to process and special training was required, the borrower had to go through counseling, and that there must be some “trick to them because they just seemed like a pretty neat product.  All in all, there was no real need to bother with them because the other forward products were going great.  However today, the forward mortgage pool is much more shallow, while the elderly population continues to grow, and many of them have substantial equity in their homes. 

 

Now Anne saw this as a great opportunity.  She began calling on seniors, going door to door in older neighborhoods.  Her first 25 calls yielded only a few Reverse Mortgage Loan applications.  Her next 25, generated twice as much, and by her third set of 25, Anne as converting over a dozen cold calls into applications.

 

What Anne had found was that many seniors were used to being poor, growing up in the Great Depression.  They had been raised to pay their homes off free and clear, to leave to their children so their children would never be poor.  Company stock and retirement plans where something that came along as they grew up, so fortunes were made through real estate.  Anne found that by exploring a little bit about finance in general and how the economy, taxes, and financial vehicles, had revolutionized themselves over the years, she was able to break through the long held perceptions of the past.  In fact with proper planning, a senior could have a Reverse Mortgage, ridding themselves of debt, and allowing them to live with a bit more financial freedom, while still protecting their children and passing down an inheritance.   Now Anne’s business is over 7O% based on Seniors and Reverse Mortgages.  Although Anne is a bit stingy as far as passing down any of her “sales formula, she does recommend that loan officers interested in learning about catering to this growing market speak to a financial planner regarding the benefits a Reverse Mortgage can have on potential borrowers. 

A Few More Related Articles of Interest:

HUD Takes Aim at Reverse Mortgage Fraud

Will Genworth Bring New Perspective to Reverse Mortgages?

New potential lending limit increase for HECM reverse mortgages.

Michigan Reverse Mortgage Scam – A Lesson in Why Counseling is Important

Another Reverse Mortgage Scam