Reverse mortgages are not your average mortgage product. Helping these clients is not just another impersonal, straightforward financial transaction. It’s not about the money, or the numbers, or closing as many deals as you can. True top-tier LOs know that finding success in this business requires more than product knowledge and refined salesmanship.

What does it take to master the art of HECM origination? We spoke with three of the industry’s top trainers to find out. These pros have coached thousands of loan officers across the country, teaching them how to succeed in their work and helping them train to be the industry’s best. Here are their tips on how to become a top-tier HECM LO:

Build a Rapport

When meeting with a potential client, it is essential that LOs take the time to connect and build a sense of trust from the onset. Hold off on the sale and get to know the person you are speaking to.

Lorraine Geraci, VP of learning and development at Finance of America Reverse, says this is key. “You’ve got to make sure that you establish trust and a relationship with a person before you throw up all your information on them,” she says.

Geraci says successful LOs work at improving their communication skills. “You have to have patience, empathy and understanding. You have to know how to talk to an older adult borrower. That doesn’t come naturally to everyone.”

“Some of the greatest loan officers I have met are people who recognize how important it is to practice their relationship-building skills and improve their communication with their prospective borrowers,” Geraci says. “If you can do that, people will trust you and look to you as a resource, as someone who can help them achieve their goals.”

Dan Hultquist, director of learning and development at ReverseVision, says LOs can work to build this trust by asking the right questions. “There are certain questions that develop a rapport, and one of the biggest ones is asking about their family. Do they want to be involved in the transaction? It’s a great rapport-building question, but it also helps you find out if somebody else is pulling the strings here. Is somebody else going to sabotage this loan? If so, you need to know upfront so you can communicate with that individual,” Hultquist says.

“There are surveys out there about what baby boomers like to talk about. No. 1 is their family. We’re building rapport by asking them questions about things they want to talk about. By the way, No. 2 is their home.”

Ask the Right Questions

Successful LOs know not to dominate the conversation, instead taking the time to ask important questions. One tip from the pros for those wanting to up their game: Stop talking and start listening.

“Salespeople in general spend too much time pitching and not enough time asking the right questions,” Hultquist says. “It’s not uncommon for salespeople to just talk and talk and talk.”

“If you can ask the right questions, you can very quickly discover a client’s objections or their emotional hot buttons. Really good salespeople know how to get people curious with fewer words.”

Hultquist says a great place to start is by asking them their opinion of the loan. “Ask, ‘What are your objections to reverse mortgages?’ If you just tell them everything you can about a reverse mortgage, you are not getting to the heart of the problem. The heart of the problem may be that they think the bank is going to get their home. Well, that could be handled very quickly. Ask, ‘What about the reverse mortgage appeals to you? What is it that doesn’t appeal to you?’ And then you’ll know where they’re coming from.”

Another key question according to Hultquist: Have you applied for a reverse mortgage before?

“Most people don’t think to ask that question; I think loan originators just assume they have not. But you’re going to find that if they’ve been turned down by someone else, there is usually a reason why.”

Geraci also stresses the need to engage a client with the right questions to obtain pertinent information. “Ask what they want, what their needs are, what’s the issue here. Why do they need money? Then you can structure a program that is going to be specific to them and their needs.”

Other essential questions, according to Geraci, are those that might reveal the influence of other decision makers. “Ask the right questions to ensure that all of the decision makers are present or available. It might be that there’s a husband-and-wife situation, and not everyone wants their kids involved, but you can at least ask.” Geraci says uncovering this information early in the process will keep your loan from going off the rails as you head toward closing.

Slow Down

Seasoned reverse originators take their time. Rushing through the process because you’re too focused on closing the deal can lead to crucial errors.

“A common mistake I see is people not getting enough information at the beginning because you were moving too fast through the process. If you rush in the beginning, moving too quickly and forgetting something, you may have to go back to the borrower later on for more information. That can annoy the living hell out of them,” Geraci says. “There can be a lot of frustration if the loan officer doesn’t do their due diligence from the beginning. It can snowball into problems down the road, which makes the experience for the borrower negative.”

Hultquist also says it’s important to take your time early on in the process. “In our haste to take the application, we often forget to ask the questions that could get us in trouble later.”

Use Technology

Great loan officers take advantage of technology. Craig Barnes, a CRMP and education leader at Reverse Mortgage Funding, says the most successful LOs use tech programs to stay organized. 

“You have to have a comfort level with technology,” Barnes says. “A successful loan officer not only has to use their loan origination system, but also uses contact management system to stay on top of things.”

Hultquist says a HECM’s lengthy turn-time requires the use of a contact management platform to stay organized. “Originating reverse mortgage loans is not like selling other items where the client comes through your door expecting to complete a transaction immediately. The process can be long, and you may have a large number of leads and prospects to manage before closing a handful of loans. Without a system to manage those contacts, you are likely to let opportunities slip through the cracks,” he says. “Most successful loan originators rely on technology to increase their efficiency.”

Hultquist points out that tech platforms can be useful to help model the loan’s line-of-credit feature to financial professionals. “Without the technology to model financial planning options, selling the merits of the reverse mortgage to CPAs, financial planners and other financial services professionals is very difficult.”

Never Stop Learning

Top-tier LOs are always looking to learn new ways to do their job better. They take advantage of all the resources the industry has to offer, continually advancing their product knowledge and elevating their sales strategy.

“The best LOs are committed to their own education,” Geraci says. “There are so many resources out there—through the lenders, HUD, NRMLA.” The most successful LOs track down educational materials so they can learn on their own.

Barnes agrees. “The good loan officers are always looking to educate themselves. They are always looking to equip themselves so they can provide this benefit in multiple ways and work with multiple people in different professional networks,” he says. “The good ones continually educate themselves on new products and new markets.”

Love the LESA

The HECM may have changed in recent years, but the product still has tremendous value. It’s important not to focus on what could have been. Hultquist says not to forget this fact when telling a client that they may have a life-expectancy set-aside (LESA).

“It’s important to talk about the LESA in a very positive tone upfront. I think one of the mistakes that loan originators are making right now is that they sell it as a negative. The LESA is a very positive thing to many clients.”

Hultquist says some originators may go through Financial Assessment and then apologize to the client because it’s been determined that a LESA will be imposed, and this will diminish the principal limit. “That’s not the way to present the LESA,” he says. “The LESA is a very positive enhancement to the program that gives somebody peace of mind that their bills are going to be paid.”

Problem-Solve

The best LOs tackle their client’s situation from the perspective of a problem-solver. A reverse mortgage can be structured in several different ways, and it’s important to figure out what structure will best suit your borrower’s needs.

Geraci says creative problem-solving is a critical skill for those who want to learn to be the best. “You have to understand how to structure a program for a borrower based on their needs by listening to what their issues are. We have some flexibility on what we can offer to a borrower in some cases, and what’s good for one person may be completely horrible for another. You have to listen to what their needs are.”

Be an Advocate

Those who are truly successful in this line of work are not only loan originators, but also advocates for their clients. Barnes says this is a hallmark of a top-tier LO.

“The good loan officers not only know the product, but they also know what support services are available to older Americans in their area, whether that be Meals on Wheels or programs that help pay for their heating,” he says. “They are aware of all of the social programs in their market because they really are advocates for the senior.”