3 Comments

1. 

   John A. Smaldone

   August 30, 2019 at 7:41 am

   Shannon,

   Good presentation. We can’t predict the future, we need to be well prepared as you stated. We need to be educated, well prepared to counsel our seniors properly and professionally.

   I hate to hear that our industry is failing or when an originator says, “What can I do to get business in this environment”! To me, those are the ones that are doomed for failure. Sure, there are many uncertainties out there, but do we bury our heads in the sand and wait for something to happen, which may never occur?

   Shannon, I hear this attitude from so many originators out there and it infuriates me! We must take each day as it comes and treat each day as a new challenge as well as trying to do better than the day before. There plenty of opportunities to originate reverse mortgages out there, yes, it takes actual work to achieve success.

   I preach to originators, “Go back to the old basics” Join forces with Elder Law attorney’s, Home Health Care providers, put on educational workshops in your community with these professionals.Heck, every county has a department on aging, team up with them, reach out, go get the bossiness. To many originators, not all, but many. expect the business to come to them, it don’t work that way no more my friend!

   Shannon, I am sorry I ranted on so, but your presentation got my mind going in various directions. It also got my mind thinking back in time as far as how we had to go out there and find the business, we had to be creative, we had to earn our way, and you know what, it was fun as well as being very rewarding!

   Thanks Shannon, make it a safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend for you and your family,

   John

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     The Positive Realist

     August 31, 2019 at 10:35 pm

     John,

     There is so much we agree on but on this subject we do not.

     Let me be clear, old reverse mortgage marketing ideas and techniques were never all that successful. The ideas you present never got the industry to 20,000 HECM endorsements for any fiscal year. HECM endorsements got off the ground when celebrities began promoting reverse mortgages. While things slowed down in fiscal 2007 and 2008, they were still growing until fiscal 2010 when the industry was hit with a 31% loss in annual fiscal year HECM endorsements. The loss was NOT the fault of the celebrities but due to the mortgage bust that hit in the two years before along with an across the board reduction to principal limit factors by HUD in order to meet MMIF projected budget requirements.

     The loss in HECM endorsements continued for the next two years with fiscal year 2012 producing less than 50% of the HECM endorsements we saw in fiscal 2009. This was followed by six straight years of secular stagnation. Now we wait for the end of a fiscal year which will ultimately end as the worst percentage loss in annual HECM endorsements at over 32% in the history of the industry to date.

     It is not that the marketing methods, techniques, and ideas before fiscal 2004 will not work but it is very doubtful if the industry will grow using them. Why go back to the marketing of fiscal 2003 and prior? The product is much different and we are now completing a decade of loss and secular stagnation returning once again to an enormous loss. This was a horrible decade for both the industry and its originators.

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2. 

   The Positive Realist

   August 31, 2019 at 10:51 pm

   Shannon,

   I have a problem picturing you as negative or pessimistic!! There has been a lot of reasons to throw in the towel.

   Perhaps the thing these naysayers need to bring to the table is the reason HECM endorsements are so low. I know I would love to crow about ever growing HECM endorsement numbers. I remember speaking to you way back in 2007. You were an originator with no end of good things to say about how the industry was doing. Between 2004 and early 2010, I had no idea that HECM endorsements would go down even though it happened before 2004.

   So let the naysayers rage. I just hope they get off their high horse long enough to help our endorsement numbers grow for fiscal 2020.

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