Bring mortgage professionals back to partnering with the leading edge in 2025

“The easiest way to launch this program is actually to buy it,” he said. “I think we’ve missed that over the years. And actually, those of us in the reverse business, myself included, classify the reverse to buy as a very tricky one, because we’ve always been used to the traditional, reverse refinance mortgage.

But H4P is easy to explain, he said, mainly because it flies in the face of other stigmas carried by the product category.

“The opposite of buying everything is good,” he said. “You help someone to get into a house, you remove many problems that a family would have by borrowing money.”

Changing the conversation

The development of this variable was also noted by Peter Sciandra, senior vice president of reverse lending secondary marketing at. Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. While Sciandra acknowledged that the potential is still there, he also said that some mortgage professionals are simply too confident in their expertise to speak well of what the HECM product can do for qualified borrowers.

This has led to the isolation of parts of the industry over time, he said, which may have led professionals to view the reverse product as too niche to engage with.

“I think what we’re going to focus on this year is figuring out how to make things easier — not just in the mortgage area but for the general public,” Sciandra said. Many times when seniors go through counseling and really look into a loan, they can get confused. They may feel that they do not fully understand the product, and that doubts may cause them to decide against it.”

The industry, he said, could do a much better job of simplifying the language used to describe the product while making it easier for top professionals to start lending. This would mean providing additional support to front-line experts beyond what is currently available.

“Most startups don’t want to go through extensive training or certification for a product they might work with from time to time,” says Sciandra. “As an industry, we need to identify the changes we can make to better support top innovators and adapt the product so they feel comfortable and willing to participate, and that’s up to us.”

A ‘thrilling’ change

In New American Funding (NAF), mortgage division leader Shannon Robinson said it’s been “exciting” to watch the dynamics play out through 2024. He expects that momentum to continue this year.

“The partnership is very strong, and we will continue to pursue that opportunity in 2025,” he said. “Personally, I have been working hard in the market, working with our top leaders. I participate in all of our monthly and weekly sales calls with the leadership team. We maintain a very close relationship here at New American Funding. “

Robinson also attends regional sales meetings at various locations where the company’s loan officers work, and the back office actively participates in these events.

“At these sales meetings, which usually gather a hundred or more loan officers in a room, we have the opportunity to sit down together,” he said. “We participate in breakout sessions, introduce ourselves, collaborate, and discuss the clients we serve and how we can help them.

“I have made many presentations at these regional meetings, talking about our product and opportunities to cooperate with us. It was a great way to encourage collaboration and build relationships across the board.”