Asking the Right Questions: Interviewing Your Prospects
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Are you communicating clearly with your prospective reverse mortgage borrowers? Are you using the same approach you did three years ago with needs-based borrowers? Will your communication be effective for the new HECM borrower who is less motivated by sheer need and is looking for strategies to help them retire or age in place? For the most part our industry has been product-driven. That is here is the reverse mortgage, here’s how it works….would you like to take an application? While that’s an oversimplified example it does illustrate that our industry is poised for a new approach.
8 Comments
Right on point! Could not have said it better. I will be recommending that my colleagues watch today’s blog. Thank you.
Thank you Nicholas. I really appreciate that.
Great approach Shannon, appreciate your focus and hard work to keep the industry informed.
Brad,
Much obliged and thank you.
always enjoy your podcasts and broadcasts and this one is a good reminder of why we are here – to help pinpoint the senior’s needs and present to them what the solutions are with the programs we offer.
Thank you Stephen. I appreciate that.
The presentation was great but there is one myth in the presentation. In many states as a practical matter there are few residential home mortgages which end up being recourse.
While it is true that almost all home mortgages start out as recourse except purchase money mortgages, mortgages in states where trust deeds are placed on the collateral with a trustee right of sale (I am not aware of any which do not) will ultimately turn out to be nonrecourse if the note holder must foreclose on the property. The reason for this transformation is that in order to pursue the trustee’s right to sell which most note holders deem preferable over judicial foreclosure, the note holder must relinquish any right of recourse. This is true in California as well as many other states.
The reason why attorneys and trustees recommend pursuing the trustee’s right to sell, is that it can be done without going to court, it is much faster than judicial proceedings, and it is far less costly. Even when there is a judicial proceeding and a declaration of the right to pursue other assets, enforcing that right may difficult since the other assets may not even cover the additional costs of judicial foreclosure and the condition of the property may have greatly deteriorated in the process.
So especially with more sophisticated borrowers and advisors, do not get off to a bad start by saying something which is not in fact the practical situation. Selling to the more financially sophisticated requires a much deeper understanding of practical mortgage law than selling to the more needy customer.
Also when selling in more than one state, the laws and legal practice in one state, may not be the same in the other(s). Although very rare, it can even change between legal jurisdictions within a state.
Spot on Shannon! The Reverse Mortgage is changing..and quickly.