July-Aug 2020

education and business management. “I found I’ve been able to use both throughout my career,” he comments. “There is always something to teach.” Buck remained in the Boise area after college and landed a position with a finance company, working his way through multiple jobs in lending. He met his future wife, Erica, in 2002. “I was a banker at the time, and she was one of my customers. She had just moved here from Havre, MT, in the northern part of the state, to be an elemen- tary school teacher,” Buck recalls. “I asked her to go with me to a Bible stud- ies group. I figured, if she turned me down, she was turning down the Lord, not me. She agreed to go with me, though, and things worked out from there.” The couple now has three children: 16- and 12-year- old boys and a ten-year-old girl. During the 2008–2009 downturn, the company where he was working, Countrywide, downsized his division while at the same time opening a reverse mortgage platform. The company offered Buck a position there. “I didn’t know much about reverse mortgages at that point and didn’t realize how much I’d come to love it,” he says. “But it’s become the job I want to spend my career in and retire from. “I started off as a wholesale representative for Countrywide. I began by approaching mortgage brokers in the area. It wasn’t a product they were using or had much familiarity with, so they didn’t regard me as compe- tition. I was able to educate them about the uses of reverse mortgages and became more of an extra service they could provide to their clients. I was able to build up a large refer- ral business that way. Countrywide also had branches in the area, and I worked with a lot of the branch staff.” Buck was firmly committed to the reverse mort- gage business and looking for ways to make himself even more valuable to his clients. “A few years ago, my manager, who was a friend of mine, asked me if I wanted to take the next step and become a CRMP,” he remembers. “He provided an opportunity for me to attend a NRMLA regional conference. I met a lot of people there, exchanged ideas and then studied and was able to pass the test.” He started to see the benefits of the CRMP designa- tion immediately. “It’s a great tool to develop my business,” Buck says. “Today, I meet with financial planners. CRMPs are who they want to work with [for Home Equity Conversion Mortgages and reverse mortgage products]. They see the CRMP as a designation of profession- alism. I like to say it is my master’s degree equivalent in reverse mortgages.” Though he is associated with Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, Buck essentially works on his own. Buck’s focus has always been on what he can do for his clients. “My first question is always, ‘What is your goal? What do you want to accomplish?’ Then we can figure out together how we can get you there,” he says. “The key is to listen, then ask questions to help them understand their own goals. Thinking that way may be new to them, but if you can get them to figure out just what they want from life and you can match their goals [with a reverse mortgage product], everyone’s a winner.” Even after the reverse mortgage closes, Buck main- tains a relationship with his clients. “I send out birth- day cards and other cards and mailers several times a year to let them know what the market is doing,” he says. “Actually, these people are my best referral source. If they feel comfortable with me and what we’ve done together, they’re going to refer their friends.” When he is not helping his senior clients ease their retirement years, Buck and his wife work on their “small hobby farm.” “We raise hay and have an orchard,” he says. “We grow about 20 different kinds of fruit, including apples, pears, cherries and apricots, all of which we pick our- selves. We also spend a lot of our time running the kids around to their various activities, though our oldest son is now driving, so that helps a lot.” “I didn’t know much about reverse mortgages … and didn’t realize how much I’d come to love it. But it’s become the job I want to spend my career in and retire from.” CRMP: Across the Kitchen Table REVERSE MORTGAGE / JULY-AUGUST 2020 17