Over the previous 12 months, members of the reverse mortgage trade have been making a extra concerted effort to join with their counterparts within the ahead mortgage house. The efforts haven’t gone unnoticed as extra ahead mortgage corporations — significantly in an elevated price surroundings — have began to see worth within the potential addition of reverse mortgages to their product suites.
Whereas some ahead lending corporations have gone out of their strategy to purchase and incorporate reverse mortgage lending divisions into their ongoing operations, others have bolstered their current reverse mortgage divisions. And a few reverse-only corporations have aimed to ascertain firmer ties with the a lot bigger ahead mortgage trade.
At this 12 months’s Mortgage Bankers Affiliation (MBA) Annual Conference and Expo, a number of reverse mortgage professionals have been readily available to try to set up these firmer ties with their ahead counterparts. HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Each day (RMD) caught up with a few of these professionals to debate their experiences.
Convention connections
Jim Cory, managing director of reverse mortgages at Guild Mortgage, is in a singular place since he was additionally not too long ago elected co-chair of the Nationwide Reverse Mortgage Lenders Affiliation (NRMLA). Cory stated that NRMLA hopes to prioritize publicity of the reverse mortgage product to extra folks within the coming 12 months — and outreach at trade occasions is part of that.
When requested concerning the receptivity stage for the ahead professionals he spoke to about partaking with the reverse mortgage matter, Cory stated that the openness that individuals have is much better than it has been in years previous.
“There’s a brand new set of huge ahead gamers in comparison with years previous,” Cory stated. “That, I believe, has grown the acceptance of speaking about it. The MBA is way extra [in reverse] and it actually pairs nicely with this mission. Persons are speaking and need to hear extra.”
On the MBA occasion in Denver in October, there was additionally a extra pronounced reverse mortgage presence. Cory, who attended the 2023 occasion and spoke alongside some trade colleagues throughout its programming, stated he didn’t recall any reverse lenders on the ground of the exhibit corridor and couldn’t recall if there have been any reverse mortgage sponsors.
This 12 months, nevertheless, one main reverse lender had a flooring presence and one other had a sponsorship presence, which he stated signifies progress.
Finance of America (FOA) had a sales space presence on the occasion. Ashley Smith, the corporate’s senior vp of name advertising and marketing and strategic communications, stated that house fairness was a generally mentioned matter throughout the occasion. That made it simpler for FOA representatives to provoke conversations, she stated.
“There may be, I believe, a marked enhance in curiosity,” Smith stated. “We had good foot visitors to our sales space, our account executives had significant conversations, and HomeSafe Second particularly is a product that attendees have been listening to about for the primary time, which actually appeared to resonate.”
HomeSafe Second is FOA’s proprietary reverse mortgage product. It’s presently the one second-lien reverse mortgage obtainable available on the market. The product has been a significant focus of FOA’s outreach efforts because it was reintroduced to the market in early 2023.
“It’s the one closed-end second available on the market that doesn’t require month-to-month funds and checks a number of containers for customers,” she stated. “So, the novelty, I believe, of having the ability to speak about a product that fills gaps within the mainstream product choice was of curiosity to folks.”
However extra ahead mortgage corporations are additionally aiming to attach with customers in a novel manner. Smith stated that the angle appeared to replicate extra openness to partaking with what has been a distinct segment, nascent product for a very long time.
Increasing the Rolodex
Longbridge Monetary additionally participated extra actively on the MBA occasion this 12 months with a sponsorship presence. The corporate, which has centered its deal with constructing its dealer partnerships, determined to make a play at MBA Annual in an effort to facilitate extra conversations with main lenders on the ahead aspect.
“Our purpose at MBA is to fulfill with as a lot of a lot of these lenders as potential,” Adrian Prieto, senior vp of wholesale at Longbridge, stated in an on-site interview on the occasion in October. “The dialog could be so simple as reverse mortgage 101, or how their servicing portfolio [could be open] for alternatives with reverse mortgages.”
However there was nonetheless a dearth of reverse mortgage illustration on the occasion, which might be on account of a number of elements, Prieto added. Getting conferences with the sorts of individuals they need is an extremely aggressive course of, he stated, however this serves as an vital first step to additional construct these sorts of relationships.
Smith acknowledged this too. Whereas foot visitors and conversations on the FOA sales space have been productive — significantly across the firm’s proprietary product — it’s clear from an surroundings like MBA Annual that work stays for the reverse trade to get extra consideration from the ahead aspect.
“Having our high executives there was about opening new relationships to speak on a deeper and extra strategic stage about together with our merchandise within the development methods for lenders throughout the nation that need to diversify,” Smith stated.
