For mortgage brokers looking to venture outside of their comfort zones and explore new potential revenue opportunities, tapping into the reverse mortgage market can be one possible avenue, says one mortgage industry chief.
With a shift back to a purchase-based market being driven by rising interest rates on the refinancing business, now is the time for traditional forward mortgage brokers to look for new revenue streams to help bolster their bottom lines, according an MReport commentary written by John Vella, chief revenue officer of Altisource Portfolio Solutions (Nasdaq: ASPS).
“Mortgage companies need a new boom,” Vella writes. “Fortunately, there are real opportunities out there—quite possibly right in brokers’ own backyards. If the market could pivot to refinancing, why can’t it find the next growth opportunities among small balance commercial loan referral programs or by tapping into the reverse mortgage market?”
Looking at the reverse sector may not be such a far stretch for brokers, as Vella suggests that most likely embedded in a broker’s customer list is a population of older homeowners who may be interested in downsizing or accessing their home equity via reverse mortgages.
“On the other end of the spectrum, a broker’s rolodex may also be filled with homeowners who are ready to tap into a lifetime of home equity through reverse mortgages,” Vella writes.
While branching outside of one’s comfort zone may seem “out of focus and complicated” for loan origination-focused brokers, Vella suggests that the key for these professionals is to find partners and technology platforms that can help them “dip a toe into” these newer areas.
“As they explore small balance and commercial loans or reverse mortgages, they can get help by outsourcing some of the functions traditionally managed in-house—for example, loan processing or the quality control of closed loans,” he writes. “Mortgage brokers are skilled at identifying business and finding opportunities, and they can transfer those skills into the commercial and reverse mortgage arenas—especially if these brokers get the support they need from the right outsourcing tools.”
Read the commentary.
Written by Jason Oliva
