HECM originators: the silent objection for many older homeowners is using up their home equity
When you sit down with a potential reverse mortgage borrower, you know they didn’t invite you over for a cup of coffee. Before they clicked on your ad, picked up the phone or sent in a card there was an underlying need or concern that motivated them. The most successful originators don’t dive into how a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage works but instead ask them what they would like to accomplish. A wise approach that cuts through the minutia of the loan and isolates underlying motivations. Despite their intentions, there may be one silent objection they are not sharing- their apprehension in using home equity…
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2 Comments
Shannon,
The topics you cover are appropriate as we need to be reminded about our presentations and how well we are gathering the critical information needed to meet the needs of the seniors we meet with while gaining their confidence and trust.
Listening is at least twice as important as explaining and listening carefully to the answers to your inoffensive but probing questions is golden. In the early part of the first meeting it is important you softly follow their lead until they move to the subject of their financial situation or reverse mortgages or you appropriately switch the conversation to those subjects.
What I question is do RM originators understand how to phrase an inoffensive but probing question? Do they know what areas to probe? Do they understand how to gauge senior aversion to risk? Can they address risk without scaring the senior? Do they have a flexible and effective script? Do they know how to make the presentation as if free of a script? How often do they update their script?
Great points when it comes to remaining inoffensive when asking sensitive questions.