NEIL SWEREN, CRMP, got his start in the mortgage business 35 years ago, originating private, conventional and government-insured mortgages. When he was offered the chance to learn about reverse mortgages, he refused, thinking they were a scam. Sweren was later approached by a family member who needed help understanding how they worked. Sweren reluctantly agreed to do some research and would soon learn that everything he thought he knew about reverse mortgages was completely wrong. He became a convert and has originated reverse mortgages almost exclusively since 2006. Today, Sweren is a senior vice president at Atlantic Coast Mortgage (ACM), headquartered in Fairfax, VA, where he helps manage the reverse mortgage division and continues to originate loans. He also serves on NRMLA’s HUD Issues Committee and in 2010 was one of the earliest adopters of the CRMP designation. Reverse Mortgage magazine sat down with Sweren to discuss his long and distinguished career and what makes him successful. Reverse Mortgage: How did you get started in reverse mortgages? Neil Sweren: One of my networking groups had a long-term care agent who approached me one day and said, “Neil, we’d like to work for you and do reverse mortgages,” and I said, “We’re not doing reverse mortgages. They’re terrible.” And she said, “Well, you don’t know anything about them.” I turned her away, and that was the end of that. She went to work for one of my competitors down the street. A few months later, my sister-in-law called me and said her parents in Florida wanted to do a reverse mortgage and could I help her understand it. I tried to talk her out of it, and she said, “Well, I’m pretty sure they’re going to do it. I need your help.” I did the research, and when I dug a little deeper, what I discovered was that there wasn’t another loan product that would or could help her parents out of the situation they were in. They had suffered some stock market losses and had an adjustable-rate loan that had increased to an unaffordable level. The only way for them to be able to afford to stay in their condo was to do a reverse mortgage. They went ahead and got one, and not long after they did the reverse mortgage, her father passed away. The only reason her mother could stay in her condo was because they had done the reverse mortgage. Neil Sweren, CRMP, Senior Vice President, Atlantic Coast Mortgage By Darryl Hicks Neil Sweren From the Top continued on page 10 From the Top REVERSE MORTGAGE /MAY-JUNE 2024 9
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