 In our combined December 08/January 09 issue of The Reverse Review, we continue to cover topics surrouding the changes in our industry. Below is a list of articles in this month's issue.
Articles:
Ask The Underwriter. Ralph Rosynek
The Birth of A New Industry. Michael Banner
Reverse Mortgage Industry Snapshot - October 2008. Reverse Market Insight
How Reverse Mortgages Can Boost Obama's Call to Service. Atare E. Agbamu, CRMS
Moving Forward in Reverse 2009...Avoid the Following Errors. Sam Collins
Time Management and Sales Productivity. Monte Rose
Feature Article: Lessons Learned from 2008. Brett Varner
The Reverse Mortgage Marketing Plan. Tom Emmerson
Year For The Records. Weiner Brodsky Sidman Kider, PC
A Guide to Following Up. Valerie VanBooven
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Starting in September, The Reverse Review is launching an educational online series of courses. The goal of the monthly classes is to help educate existing reverse mortgage originators and new forward originators entering the space. Monthly webinar topics will range from understanding the origination/underwriting process, the use of rate calculators, exploring new and existing loan programs in the market, and developing sales strategies. Each session will be taught by experts from within the industry that have partnered with The Reverse Review. And best of all, the webinars will be absolutely free.
Classes will start in September and dates will be announced by the end of next week. Please feel free to contact us to make suggestions for session topics, educators, etc.. Thanks!
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 MISSION VIEJO, CA (August 7th, 2008) – OmniHome Financing, Inc. announced today that it had moved to a newly expanded headquarters in Mission Viejo, California. According to Reverse Mortgage Insight, OmniHome Financing is the largest privately held reverse mortgage originator in the country.
"We are very excited about expanding our business into a new state of the art corporate headquarters. This facility will allow us to recruit and grow our sales and operations team to keep up with the demand," said Sean Browning, CEO of OmniHome Financing Inc. "The new facility is a result of our successful growth and will allow us to operate more efficiently while also providing for continued growth," said Browning.
According to the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association Reverse Mortgages showed significant growth in 2007. FHA insured reverse mortgage loans or Home
Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECM) have seen unprecedented growth over the last three years as the demand for these products continues to accelerate.
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Update from NRMLA on new bill
HUD Briefing On New Law
Earlier this afternoon, we participated in a telephone briefing on the new FHA Modernization legislation conducted by FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery and his staff. Here is what we have learned:
Maximum HECM Loan Limit – HUD’s lawyers have still not resolved whether the bill creates a single national loan limit at $417,000 or $625,500, or area limits at 115% of area median home value, with a floor of of $417,000 and a cap of $625,500. If, in the end, the lawyers conclude that there is a single national loan limit at either of the two option levels, HUD will be able to implement that fairly quickly, probably with a Mortgagee Letter issued by October 1 that would take effect on November 1. If the lawyers conclude that the maximum loan limit will be based on the 115% of area median standard, it will take until January 1, 2009 to implement. We hope to get the lawyers’ final decision within the next day or so.
HUD expressed serious concern about companies marketing with new loan limits before the Department actually figures out what those limits might be. Companies that do so might find themselves subject to disciplinary action for false or misleading advertising, so we advise you to wait until the issue is resolved before sending out any marketing information based on new loan limits. Also, such advertising would be a violation of NRMLA Code of Ethics & Professional Responsibility, leading to sanctions by the Association.
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 If you're interested in meeting reverse mortgage professionals dedicated to the industry, click the link below to join The Reverse Review's networking group on LinkedIn.
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/62524/5015B16DD76F
You'll be able to view profiles of industry professionals, build new business relationships, and stay up to date with reverse mortgage news!
Join today, it's FREE.
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 NRMLA Announces Housing Bill, expected to be signed this week.
Update Below by Peter H. Bell, President of NRMLA
The legislative saga of the HECM amendments will continue this
week as the major housing bill containing these provisions is
brought to the House floor for yet another vote, currently
scheduled for Wednesday, July 23.
As we last reported, the Senate passed a version of this bill
(H.R. 3221) late on Friday, July 11, and sent it over to the
House for its concurrence. If you remember from our previous
report, the Senate leadership had hoped to pass a version of the
bill referred to as the "managers' amendment," that included
refinements to the bill made after it was reported out of
committee. However, due to procedural maneuvering by a couple of
Senators, the managers' amendment could not be brought to the
floor for a vote. Instead, the prior version of the bill, with
the language exactly as it was reported out of committee, is what
was brought to the floor and passed.
The House has several items it wants to amend in the version
passed by the Senate, including some items of concern to House
members and other items that would have been included in the
managers' amendment had it been passed. In addition, after the
Senate passed its bill last weekend, the White House called for a
plan to provide financial support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The White House plan requires Congressional action on a few of
its provisions. Congressman Barney Frank, chairman of the House
Financial Services Committee, is incorporating these new
provisions providing financial support and supervision to the
GSEs into the version of H.R. 3221 that he is planning to bring
to the House floor on Wednesday.
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 For the most part our industry is dominated by the big corporate giants but recently we have seen that even the Financial Freedom’s of the world aren’t totally safe. So how is it in these tough times an independent reverse mortgage lender has been able to grow itself into one of the top 10 largest reverse lenders in the country?
The lender I’m talking about is California based Omni Reverse Mortgage. I had the chance to sit down and talk with Sean Browning, Omni’s new CEO to learn about why they’ve been successful and what the company plans to do to continue growing.
Omni was started by David Bancroft, Tony Gaglione, and Keith Murphy in 2002. Are they still involved day to day in terms of running and growing the company?
Absolutely! The Leadership and ongoing involvement of the three original founders is a critical part of the success of the Company. All Partners are responsible for a different focus that compliments the needs and growth of the company and we are committed to “Constant Continuous Improvement” in everything we do. We meet frequently to discuss finding ways to improve our overall operations as well as the strategic vision of the company. In addition, all of the Partners have worn “several hats” as they grew the company to where it is today and provide a very unique perspective and “close to the street” experience which is shared and utilized on a daily basis.
Last time we spoke you told me 2005 was a turning point for Omni as a company, what happened?
In 2005 the Partners were looking at the future growth of the mortgage industry, the company’s position in the industry, and recognizing the tremendous growth opportunity that the Reverse Mortgage Space provided, completely re-focused the company on the Reverse product. They were able to educate themselves, retrain their Team, retool the systems, and refocus the talent of the company on the Reverse Mortgage product. Since then, they have collectively built the company to be the largest independently owned Reverse Mortgage Originator in the Country. I have had a longstanding business relationship with the 3 partners for 6 years and was able to witness their growth and how they were able to change their focus and it impressed me then…. and it continues to impress me today.
Before joining Omni you helped grow different businesses in the forward world, is growing a reverse mortgage company any different?
Yes and No. Yes in the fact that you grow successful organizations with a Team of professionals and make sure they are all aligned with the same goals and every member is committed to the same vision. No in the fact that the Reverse Mortgage Product is entirely different from the forward products and building relationships with your customers take longer, increasing the sales cycle time significantly. In addition, building referral relationships are not anything like the traditional forward world.
You were hired in January of this year as CEO, where are you looking to take Omni in the next 6-12 months?
We are looking to continue growing Omni’s growth and production through internal organic expansion, external branch growth, and through strategic partnerships with other Reverse Mortgage Professionals. We are increasing our National footprint and will be entering new markets positioning ourselves for continued growth.
What are some of the short term challenges you see in growth for Omni? Are they the same as the overall industry?
Like all companies, differentiating yourself to the consumer and the referral sources is challenging. That being said, we have the vision to continue to grow and expand our operations on a National scale, and in order to accomplish this, we are looking to raise additional capital. We can continue to finance our growth through internal profits as we have done in the past, but not as quickly as we would like.
Omni’s production puts it in the top 10 of HECM, how How is Omni different from the rest of the Top 10 HECM lenders?
Because we are a privately held company that operates with an entrepreneurial spirit, it allows us to move quickly, adapt to changes in the marketplace, and focus on the emerging growth areas of the business. Larger corporations have a more difficult time adapting to change and that truly differentiates Omni from our larger competitors. We have the Leadership, Resources, Systems and Processes that our larger corporations have “without” the bureaucracy. We are a very flat organization that responds quickly to changes in the marketplace because of our fast decision making and that is very difficult for larger corporations to accomplish.
Because of this, our originators consistently close more than double the industry average per loan officer allowing us to enjoy a decent overall market share in the industry.
You had mentioned that the founding partners are still on “the floor” with the originators keeping their ears to the street, on the phones, ect.
First and foremost, the 3 Founding Partners and I have all been high producing originators. We understand the business and the unique challenges associated with being an originator. Our Leadership Team works side by side and shoulder to shoulder with our Originators on a daily basis and provides “on-going and on the spot” support when it is critically needed. I believe this truly differentiates our company from most of our larger competitors.
There are a good amount of companies who have 5-10 originators and are doing 20+ HECMs a month but building upon that gets tough. Omni has been successful getting past that point, do you have any advice to companies looking to take that next big step?
Yes, join Omni. =) Seriously though, be prepared for a long battle and be willing to invest everything you have in your vision. The retail origination business is very competitive and you truly need to be 100% focused on the Reverse Mortgage Space in order to grow. This takes a tremendous amount of belief, patience, and discipline, which many are challenged with. The reverse mortgage product is unique and misunderstood and the sales cycle is very long….. so be prepared to invest your Time, Money, Heart and Soul!
To see a report of Omni’s numbers that Reverse Market Insight provided click the link below.
Omni MIC Report |
 We were all waiting for some type of announcement about Indymac’s future and it looks like we’ve got it. Today Indymac’s CEO Michael Perry issued a stakeholder letter that said federal regulators have advised that they are no longer “well capitalized” and are requesting they submit a new business plan for review and approval. Perry said they have agreed on the basic elements of the plan, and the regulators have directed Indymac to start executing it.
Starting today…
- Indymac will no longer accept any new loan submissions or rate locks in their retail or wholesale forward mortgage lending channels. Indymac will honor all of their existing rate-locked loans and will continue to fund the loans in the coming weeks.
- To ensure Indymac maintains prudent operating liquidity they are no longer permitted to accept new brokered deposits or renew or roll over existing ones.
- Indymac plans to refocus all lending efforts on supporting and building within regulatory constraints Financial Freedom (FHA production only) and the retention activities associated with their servicing portfolio.
The post from Perry goes into more detail and I encourage everyone to take a look at the link below. Indymac stock closed today at $0.71.
The IMB Report
View Original Article |
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Below you will find the top HECM lenders through June in 2008. Be sure to check out the sample report which breaks down the top lenders even more at the bottom.
- 10,026 loans were endorsed in June, up a hair over 10% vs the prior month. This brings the industry total for the halfway point of 2008 to 59,235 units. A simple doubling of that number would imply roughly 118,500 endorsements come December 31st, a growth rate of close to 9.5% vs 2007.
- The top 10 lenders share of the volume came in at 37%, or 3,669 units for the month.
- We continue to see strong gains from Countrywide, World Alliance Financial, Bank of America, and First Mariner Bank.
- New lenders entering the market continues to be the story in the reverse mortgage industry. Through June, there have been 2,175 lenders getting endorsements, 86% higher than the number last year. Compare that to the 5% change in endorsements in the same period, and you certainly understand why the industry is feeling more competitive.
- We are introducing a new measure this month, Endorsements per Active Lender, that quickly distills the competitive aspect of the industry. The chart below shows how this has changed over the last three years — the number of loans endorsed per active lender has been cut in half since June ‘06, and has been on a straight line down since then. (click image to see full size)
June 2008 MIC Report Sample “Market statistics and report sample provided by Reverse Market Insight, the leading source of market intelligence in the reverse mortgage industry. For more information about RMI and to purchase the full MIC report with additional key performance indicators and market statistics, please visit our website at www.rminsight.net“
View Original Article |
 Press release from Reverse Market Insight on software tools designed for reverse mortgage industry analytics.
Reverse Market Insight launches new service for reverse mortgage sales managers to analyze local market activity and potential for optimum sales and marketing effectiveness
Aliso Viejo, CA (PRWEB) June 25, 2008 -- RMI (www.rminsight.net) has announced the release of their Data Analytics Series for the Reverse Mortgage Industry. The first application is Data Analytics Series: Reverse Sales Management and is designed for reverse sales managers. Built on incredibly detailed loan and lender activity at the zip code level, RMI constructs customized sales management tools allowing the lender to identify the best reverse mortgage opportunities at a micro level and prioritize their people, time and marketing dollars to produce more loans and make more money.
"We have created an enormous data set at the local level where loan decisions get made, and we've then converted it into actionable information we customize with our clients," said John Lunde, President of RMI. "As you look at regional and sub regional reverse performance, the requirement to engage in the local focus RMI brings in the Data Analytic Series is tremendous," Lunde continued.
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