Volume in the reverse mortgage space has been down just about everywhere, and some originators may be feeling pretty negative about their work right now. In this post-Financial Assessment landscape, the industry has lost about 30 percent of its market since April 2015 and industry participants may rightly feel discouraged.
Many of us are tired from working endlessly to get a handle on HUD’s latest round of changes. Just when we think we’ve tackled the new guidelines, another mortgagee letter changes the game. It’s an exhausting race.
FA has changed the nature by which we do business, and learning the ropes has many of us feeling a bit weary. I am not saying that all the proposed changes are bad! Some are very good, but they have forced us to work harder to help our senior clients.
We cannot succumb to this feeling of defeat. Instead, let’s ask ourselves the following to help assess what we can do to turn business around:
How many new markets have we penetrated successfully?
How much time have we taken to thoroughly understand FA?
How much time have we taken to learn about the financial planning community?
How much time have we taken to understand what truly motivates the small community banker or credit union so that we can better connect with them?
How many small banks, credit unions, financial planners, attorneys and accountants have we called on since FA came into play?
These professionals, especially financial planners and advisors, look at restructuring their clients’ financial assets and risk much differently than we do. It is extremely important for us to learn as much as we can about their work and adapt their terminology so that we can show them how a HECM can help the right client in the right situation. If we communicate with them within their world, they will find we can be of value to them and their clients. In return, they will want us to teach them about our world and the HECM product. Talk about a win-win.
By going out and building new partnerships, we can offset our losses and connect with professionals who may be able to help us originate higher-quality loans with higher home values. FA is here to stay, so we must embrace it enthusiastically or we will not succeed. It is more critical than ever that we reach outside of our comfort zones and work to build long-lasting professional partnerships.
