It’s been nearly one year since Home Point Financial Corporation entered the reverse mortgage business following its acquisition of New Jersey-based lender Maverick Funding. As the company continues to solidify its place amongst the industry’s top lenders, Home Point is relying on strategic hires to grow its reverse mortgage presence nationwide.
Since Home Point’s entry into the reverse mortgage sector following the April 2015 acquisition of Maverick Funding, the company has cemented its position as a top-10 industry lender, an accomplishment the company attributes to its ongoing commitment to grow personnel on every facet of its business.
“We take the decision to bring on new team members carefully,” said Josh Shein, senior director of Home Point’s reverse mortgage division. “It has to be the right fit for us with people who we think tie into our corporate culture and are a good fit for our overall growth plan.”
Over the past few months, Home Point has already made several key staffing additions across various business channels. Last December, the company added former CitiMortgage and Cole Taylor Mortgage executive Lisa Patterson to focus on continued growth in Home Point’s third party lending channel.
Home Point also recently hired reverse industry veteran Sherry Green who it says will be a key factor in helping the company grow its wholesale business. Formerly serving as Manager of Lender Support at Liberty Home Equity Solutions, and serving in various wholesale positions with MetLife in years prior to that, Green will focus on strengthening relationships with Home Point’s wholesale partners, as well as helping the company work through difficult and complex loans on the retail side.
“Sherry is also going to be helping on the retail side, working with loan scenarios and using her knowledge of the industry and of Financial Assessment to help us close more loans, improve our processes, loan flow, turn times and service for borrowers, retail loan originators and wholesale partners as well,” Shein said. “Someone with Sherry’s level of expertise is going to be very helpful with that.”
On the retail side, Home Point last month added Steven Sless to serve as a branch manager. Sless, who most recently served as a managing partner for Bayshore Mortgage Funding’s reverse mortgage division, formerly worked with Maverick Funding prior to the company’s acquisition by Home Point. Joining Sless in the move to Home Point are several key team members from Bayshore’s reverse division, some of whom also previously worked with Maverick.
“We’re excited to have the group back with their experience, knowledge and history to help us expand our presence nationwide,” Shein said.
The addition of so much personnel in just a few months time illustrates the Home Point’s full commitment to growing its reverse mortgage operations. For Sless and his team, joining Home Point will also enable them to increase the footprint of their educational reverse mortgage seminars and the company’s direct to consumer platform.
“There’s a huge difference between wanting to do reverse mortgages and really putting the marketing dollars to commit to it,” said Sless. “Home Point provides us with that opportunity.”
In 2015, Home Point ranked eighth overall in terms of industry volume with 1,278 Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsements, according to the most recent data tracked by Reverse Market Insight. On the whole, Home Point’s volume in 2015 grew 59% compared to 2014. The company’s wholesale channel propelled its growth during the year with 758 units, a 108.2% increase compared to the previous 12-month period in 2014. Retail also grew during this time, rising 18.2% to 520 loans.
As Home Point looks ahead into 2016, the company plans to continue its strategic hiring efforts to grow its team and maintain its position as one of the reverse mortgage industry’s top lenders.
“We’re looking at significant growth in 2016 on both wholesale and retail, but again, it’s going to be through strategic additions on the retail branch side and, of course, building out our wholesale side coast to coast,” Shein said. “We believe we can deliver exceptional service and turn times for our broker partners and that is going to be key for our commitment to growth.”
Written by Jason Oliva
