July/August 2022 Reverse Mortgage Magazine

don’t want to do business with them because all it takes is one loan to wipe them out,” she says. Everitt got her CRMP in 2010. She was still an underwriter then, in the early years of her reverse mortgage career. She heard that the CRMP’s required ethics course would be held in her area, and the credential seemed like something that would further her knowledge. “I just love to learn, and so I thought this would be something that would challenge what I already know, give me some additional information and help me continue growing in this industry,” she says. This spring, Everitt moved from Southern California, her home for 47 years, to Rock Rapids, IA. There, the mother of two adult children is near her daughter and five of her nine grandchildren. She rented a circa-1927 home and is still recovering from trying to squeeze a 21st centurysize refrigerator through a 20th century-size door. She already knew many of the Rock Rapids townspeople from Christmas visits and services at the church where her son-in-law is associate pastor, but she is experiencing a new level of neighborliness compared with her California condo. “When the moving truck showed up, my daughter put together a crowd of 12 people to help unload,” she says. “I had never even met some of them before, and they just showed up because my daughter asked them to.” Once Everitt is settled in, she will resume working. She already has feelers out among her network of colleagues and friends—one of the advantages of NRMLA membership and the CRMP. Any time she has a question, she can easily call a friend and find a fresh perspective from someone she has met at a NRMLA conference or CRMP session. “I’m very fortunate in having those resources because I’ve been working remotely, just by my lonesome, for 30 years,” she says. “I have these virtual friendships and connections that I’m able to tap into.” Though she rarely deals directly with borrowers, she does have people she sees as clients—her loan officers. Any time they encounter “gray areas” of their own and feel they are in murky compliance territory, they know they can call her and get a straight answer. In the end, the loan officer and the borrower are both confident that they are doing the right thing. Everitt believes in sharing her knowledge with the industry and the community as an expression of gratitude for the opportunities she has been given. She serves on NRMLA’s Risk & Compliance Committee so she can support the field while also staying on top of trends, discussing shared challenges and amplifying her advocate’s voice. She is also passionate about empowering others to take control of their money. While on the board of Financial Women International, she taught financial literacy at a women’s shelter that the organization supported. Now, she is adapting those lessons to teach financial literacy to teens at the local library. She remembers the barriers to upward mobility that she encountered early in her career. “Helping people overcome some of those barriers is my way of giving back,” she says. CRMP: Across the Kitchen Table REVERSE MORTGAGE / JULY-AUGUST 2022 17

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