Exclusive Interview with Loren Riddick:
A perfect storm of opportunity
Loren Riddick shares his real-life experiences in creating a steady stream of qualified and motivated potential borrowers from these referral partners…
8 Comments
What an inspiration Riddick is. Great interview. Thanks, Shannon.
Yet HECM endorsements are down to less than 9,600 in the quarter ended 16 days ago from over 15,000 for the same calendar quarter last year (i.e., the three months ended 12/31/2021). There is no question that addressing misconceptions and falsehoods about HECMs will help our individual volume to some degree but NOT the awful of compensation we see in rate sheets and let’s be truthful, volume alone cannot make up for that problem.
As to HECM endorsements, last fiscal year (ended 9/30/2022) was exceptional; its total of over 64,400 was the best fiscal year HECM endorsement total volume seen in more than a decade!!! But even the optimists in our industry have decided that fiscal 2023 will have much less volume.
BUT then there is comp. Where was industry leadership on addressing “runaway” HECM Refis volume last fiscal year? Why didn’t the lenders demand meetings between FHA, GNMA, and NRMLA to address this problem, while encouraging HECM Refi production, lenders were warning of negative repercussions from the investment community unless something was done.
Who is addressing the PLF and MIP policy of FHA as expressed in its 10/2/2017 changes. There seems to be some movement at NRMLA, four years late!!
These are difficult times and our industry to a large extent is in freefall. Unless interest rates drop or FHA rescinds its 10/2/2017 changes, I lack the confidence to say that this fiscal year will be positive for most originators.
Excellent – thank you
Looks like you need to make a segment for Loren! Wonderful interview Shannon! This was one for the books! Kudos to you both. 🙂
Thanks, Angel! Stay tuned next week for Part 2 with Loren!
Phenomenal interview Shannon! Loren’s energy is contagious.
Thank you, John. Loren makes my job easier.
Now let us come back to accountability. Loren is an optimist. The tone of the NRMLA Convention a few months before was also very optimistic. Yet based on the outcome for HECM endorsements from fiscal 2023, could one make a rational case that both the tone of the Convention and the statements by Loren had little to do with what was known as fact both in late 2022 at the Convention and in this interview? For those who have forgotten total HECM endorsements in fiscal 2023 were the second worst for any fiscal year since fiscal year 2003. Reading HECM World and RMD interviews, following the Convention, one could easily conclude that there was no data available to indicate how really bad the first part of fiscal 2023 would turn out but that simply was not the case. The problem was with the willingness of those who read and heard such information to consider such information as fact but fact it was!! Trend analysis and forecasting based on it were nearly spot on.
So let us look at some of the facts known by most of those who follow both HECM endorsement and HECM CNA (Case Number Assignment) trends by late summer 2022. By then, HECM CNA production was rapidly deteriorating due to the quickly decreasing PLFs caused by the rapid rise in the HECM expected rate index. HECM Refi endorsements were swiftly decreasing, in fact, so swiftly that marketing dollars were being invested as in the prior but within days it became obvious that there was little hope of a positive return.
The Fed was by and large responsible for rising interest rates and was far more concerned about the horrible rate of inflation than about the industry’s concern about a rapidly diminishing supply that would be available in a growing interest rate environment. The intention of the Fed and its actions were written off by the optimistic as temporary and by the end of 2023 or at worst early 2024, everything would return to the way it was before the Fed took such drastic action. You know the story from there.
So some may ask why didn’t those who took the lead in speaking so optimistically, take the lead to stop detrimental actions based on the related predictions? For that answer you need to ask the optimists and their leaders.