In Reverse Appraisals, Sales, Compliance Set Tone for Reverse Mortgages By Thomas A. Barstow WITHOUT STRONG SALES, companies can’t survive. Without solid partnerships with appraisal companies, loan volumes wither. Without dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s when it comes to government regulations, companies get distracted from their main mission of sales. In this issue of Reverse Mortgage magazine, we look at all three of these cornerstones to the lending industry. In the cover story, Sales Boost: Tips Offer Opportunities to Increase Your Closings (p. 18), loan officers provide insights into what they have been doing to increase closings, from tried-and-true networking at local community events to how best to handle telephone pitches to social media. The article also discusses an important point that NRMLA’s leaders emphasize: Much more needs to be done to educate potential referral partners about reverse mortgages and how these tools can serve their clients. As a former real estate agent, Matt Harrison, CRMP, has seen how agents often know little about how reverse mortgages work. As a loan consultant, Harrison meets with real estate agents to show them that HECMs for Purchase can truly improve the lives of potential clients. Similar points are made by Joe DeMarkey, who wrote this edition’s Board Room column (p. 7). As the strategic business development leader of Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC, DeMarkey continually interacts with financial advisers, builders, in-home care agencies and real estate agents to spread the word about reverse mortgages. He encourages everyone in the industry to ramp up efforts on this education front. “I strongly believe that when potential borrowers, their family members and advisers are better educated on the product features of reverse mortgages, they will make better informed decisions about their financial well-being,” he writes. “This will undoubtedly lead to the responsible market growth that our industry needs.” Those efforts, he suggests, could do much more to advance sales than product innovations, which he suggests are critical to future success. All of the sales tools and education efforts in the world don’t mean much if a loan gets bogged down along the way. I previously have written how the servicing end of the industry includes the unsung heroes whose attention to detail ensures that loans go through as In Reverse continued on page 4 REVERSE MORTGAGE / MARCH-APR I L 2022 3
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