Born in NW Indiana, Jeff Cota moved to San Diego 17 years ago after attending school at Purdue University. Jeff soon fell in love with real estate and began immersing himself in the industry and working with home owners to achieve their goals.
After spending his first four years focusing on more traditional forward financing options, Jeff came across the HECM program and immediately recognized its ability to improve the lives of home owners in retirement. This led to Jeff earning his Certified Reverse Mortgage Professional designation in September 2016, making him a member of an exclusive group that consists of only approximately 155 loan officers nationwide. Weekly Report sat down with Cota to learn more about his approach to selling reverse mortgages.
Weekly Report: How are you adapting to today’s reverse mortgage market?
Jeff Cota: I personally haven’t seen much adjustment in today’s reverse mortgage marketplace. The goal is, and always has been, to provide solutions to seniors. From that prospective, working with industry professionals, financial advisors, CPAs, trust attorneys and realtors has always been common practice. The only challenge over the past several years from my prospective is managing the client’s expectation of funds available with the principle limit factors.
WR: Has the conversation changed at all between you and your clients in terms of helping sell the product?
JC: Not much, if at all. The conversation has always been incorporating housing wealth into retirement planning to better plan for the financial needs of retirement.
WR: What is your favorite reverse mortgage story?
JC: We recently closed a HECM for Purchase for a client who was planning on moving out of state with her husband. Their existing home was already in escrow to be sold. Two weeks prior to the move, the husband was involved in a fatal car accident. We were able to help the borrower find a new home in the same community they had lived and used the H4P so that she could start over while still being close to her friends from the community.
WR: How do you all reach consumers today? Social media?
JC: Our bread and butter is holding “lunch and learns” for seniors and professionals to bring awareness and education of the program, which in turn leads to new clients.
WR: What is one (positive) take away for the coming year?
JC: I think the general public’s view of the program has improved drastically over the years and many of the professionals I mentioned previously in my responses are now seeing the HECM as a viable option for their clients.