Contrary to what some might believe, if we embrace the new HECM as a marketing and career opportunity, it may be possible to achieve success under the revised program. I told a loan officer that the other day, and he looked at me like I was crazy. But I believe programs will always evolve, and you need to be prepared to turn lemons into lemonade.
We have lived through enough changes this year, and now it’s time to embrace the new HECM, which will require more study, education, thought and evaluation. We have to know this loan inside out if we are to succeed at selling it.
The changes that come with this new loan are restrictive, but at least they are understandable. The new rules may not be comfortable for originators, but we can live with them. It’s also important to remember that for the HECM program to survive, changes were necessary. A friend of mine, Bob Wommack, who originated his first reverse mortgage in 1999, said, “The changes are good for seniors who need to stretch out their equity over a number of years, and they will help HUD protect the future of the HECM program. It’s a win-win.” I couldn’t agree more.
These changes to the HECM were inevitable, and they may even continue to evolve. To survive and prosper, we need to be open to learning and adapting. When things remain constant the routine might make life easier, but it’s also easier for our competition to catch up. By switching things up, HUD has created a new playing field for those in the reverse space. Originators who can master the new rules and develop an innovative business approach will succeed. Remember, the first to market always wins market share.
New loan programs and changing economies provide opportunities for loan originators who are able to best adapt. The ones who succeed are the ones who can understand the changes better and faster and who can understand the impact for the borrower better and faster. If you can master this, you help your vendor partners understand the changes and you can be first to help seniors receive a loan under the revised program.
Change is a marketing blessing. It gives you a reason to touch base with everyone in your network and meet with referral partners and renew those relationships. It gives you a way to add value. It inspires new topics for presentations to groups of all sizes, because people need to learn what you know about the changes. If you miss out on these marketing opportunities, you are missing a valuable opportunity to advance your career.
The biggest challenge in social media is coming up with something worthwhile to talk about. A change like the new HECM provides originators with lots of valued material to share. It presents a great opportunity to build your social media presence and your online authority at the same time. Study and learn, then share what you know!
So, will this newfound opportunity be easy? Of course not; it’s loan origination, not order-taking. Great opportunities usually boil down to an opportunity to work more, not less. But remember the famous saying, once erroneously attributed to Thomas Jefferson but actually written by F.L. Emerson and published in Reader’s Digest in 1947: “I’m a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.”
The good news is some of your competition will not understand that this is an opportunity. Some will not put in the time to actually understand the changes and therefore they won’t understand what the changes really mean to the consumer or how to sell the new program. It also means they will miss marketing opportunities and have fewer leads. Eventually, they may decide to retire, and the survivors will get their market share. You can be that survivor; you can take their slice of the pie.
So are you ready to survive and thrive? The first thing you need to do is create a plan. I still value the adage, “Plan your work and work your plan,” because I believe that’s what successful people do. Start with the simple plan below, and fill in your own details. The more you think through the details, the better results you will have.
Understand the new program for borrowers.
-Who will the program work for?
-How does it work for borrowers, and what are the benefits?
Understand the program for you.
-How will you be paid, and what borrowers should you target?
-What is your messaging, and how do you sell the loan?
Create a marketing plan.
-What channels or lead source will you use?
-What referral partners and vendors will you use?
-What is your messaging to the partners and vendors?
-What is your messaging to borrowers?
-Create the materials you need.
Roll out your plan.
-Contact referral and vendor partners.
-Reaffirm that you are “the HECM expert” in your sphere of influence.
-Create a schedule and start filling it with presentations and meetings.
-Start making presentations.
Track your results.
-Track the vendors, partners and borrowers you contact. Know your results.
-Write down the results of each presentation, large or small.
-Ask for referrals
from everyone you meet.
-At large presentations, ask where else you can present.
Lather, rinse and repeat.
-Analyze your results and make changes.
-Improve your targeting, messages and presentations.
-Expand your reach and hit it again.
If you work a plan like this, you should rake in new business. It won’t be the business you had; that business is gone. But it will be the business of today and tomorrow. You will be helping people, maybe more than ever before, and the HECM program will be on better footing, more likely to be a solution for aging consumers down the road.
