[vimeo id=”114925714″ width=”625″ height=”352″]
Seizing the Holiday Season for Business Planning & Growth
[CORRECTION]: The Financial Assessment goes into effect March 2nd, 2015, not the 15th as I erroneously mentioned in the video]
It’s the season of winter cheer, eggnog, ridiculously big meals, gifts and unfortunately the business Grinch. The Business Grinch appears every December attempting to steal our productivity, well intentioned plans and goals for the coming year. What are some ways you can prepare to avoid the business grinch? Let’s look at a few ways to better prepare and maximize this season.
1- Projects. Begin by making a master list of the projects you wish to accomplish this year. Break them down into smaller action steps and then
2- Time block your calendar. Time block the days and times you will dedicate to your project actions. Also time block out recurring activities that are the backbone of your business such as outbound lead calls, follow up, professional networking, conferences and more.
3- Reexamine your marketing plan. We should anticipate a rush of new applicants in January and February in anticipation of the Financial Assessment which goes into effect March 15th. The question is what happens after? Here is where you will need to…
Download the video transcript for this episode here.
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8 Comments
Another year-end is fast approaching and it is time for all to give thanks for the opportunity to be a part of this exciting and fulfilling business.
I know many of you worked in the forward
arena prior to discovering the Reverse product and we were all faced with varying degrees of financial assessment and we have survived.
Embrace it and go forward and help a Senior enjoy their life.
Thanks Shannon, Amara, and other contributors
to our weekly updates.
Bill. We value you as a loyal viewer and contributor to our community. Thank you for the perspective and Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Great video but doesn’t financial assessment start on March 2nd (not the 15th as stated in the video)?
Also now that we have seen the impact of the HUD changes for 9/30/2013 and 8/4/2014, it is a great time to estimate closings and related revenues. Without a working business plan, it is hard to stay on track and now more than ever it is not simply a matter of the number of closings especially in light of lower average MCAs last year despite rising home values and much lower initial balances due immediately after initial funding due to lower initial principal limits and the first year 60% principal limit for disbursements.
We will also need two different marketing plans for 2015. The first will be to a broader group of senior homeowners warning of the coming financial assessment and then to a more targeted group who will have less problems with financial assessment.
As the number of viable prospects drops, our marketing efforts must get smarter and more effective. Marketing will be a huge challenge next year especially after mid February. Hopefully we will quickly learn how to reach the broader senior market so disruption is minimized.
At first financial assessment should wreak havoc as to closings and endorsements but the impact as to endorsements will not be seen until about June 2015. Such havoc should be short lived mainly impacting closings in calendar 2015.
We made the correction you will see just below the video in red and also in the transcript. Thank you for the catch though. The Grinch caught my tongue.
Shannon,
In my lifetime, I have had more than my fair share of misspeakings.
Thank you Cynic. I am not alone đŸ™‚
Are we going to let the Grinch have next year’s Christmas too? I have four widows in the pipeline that won’t be there next year unless we stop the government Grinch now while we can.
FINANCIAL WATER BOARDING
Let the MIP protect the reality of the foreclosure impact on the reverse mortgage program. Send the regulators back to the trenches they dug in front of us. The Financial Assessment regulation must be repealed before it is launched or we will all live to regret it, big time.
The financial water boarding planned for our senior prospects for a reverse mortgage — referred to as the financial assessment — will succeed in washing out what is left of the program in jig time. When next summer rolls around, we will all be looking for work elsewhere. The FA will not contribute to saving the few we’ve been worrying about, that end up in foreclosure.
The regulation will mostly succeed in limiting the industry from survival and we will still have foreclosures as before from the very people we qualified under the new rules.
The current hell bent infringement of senior dignities will contribute to the end of the reverse mortgage program as we know it. The widows I have in my pipeline will not cooperate with the demeaning process that in fact it is. Already, the RM process for eligibility has brought sanity to a halt with impacting regulation well beyond the severity of the issues they address. As a well experienced loan officer, I have changed my mind and will urge the RM industry to throw out the demeaning financial assessment regulation before it destroys our means of employment and takes out the very prospects who need help to survive their senior years utilizing their own home equity.
With the FA in place, there will be few takers of the reverse mortgage. Few of our prospects will endure the intense questioning that it requires. The loan officers who came to help them will soon be overwhelmed with regulation to prove eligibility as seniors turn to bankruptcy and other means to survive.
The FA is a self defeating regulation. Read it and weep. Read it again and experience the anger arising in your soul as you visualize the impact of the questions you are required to ask.
The order we have been given to read it three times is necessary because we will not believe our eyes what it will do to our livelihood and those of our prospects. There is no wisdom to support this inquisition except that a mean spirited government with their own agenda requires it.
The time to fight for senior rights is now. This is truly an insane / mindless fix for the reverse mortgage program. We will not outlive our stubbornness to succeed if we stand by now while it strangles us.
How long will it take for sanity to restore our senses? Can we restore it after it is ruined completely? These are fair questions now.
The Financial Assessment is not a solution unless your goal is to eliminate the REVERSE MORTGAGE PROGRAM from our list of retirement benefit choices for those in need who still have home equity.
Come on Shannon — let’s repeal it NOW or we’ll all be behind the “Grinch Ball” by next year end.
Bill,
Thanks for taking the time and care to show your appreciation! I echo Shannon in valuing you as a loyal reader and contributor to the HECMWorld community.