Stewart in the Studio

Stewart In The Studio E14 - A Forward Look at Reverse Mortgages

• Thomas Hoff

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In this episode of 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙄𝙣 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙤, we take a forward look at reverse mortgages with Rob Awalt of ALLEGIANT REVERSE SERVICES a Stewart Company. Learn why lenders are looking at our changing demographics and what's needed to give these protected-class consumers a great closing experience.

Speaker 1:

In this episode of Stewart in the Studio, we take a forward look at reverse mortgages with Rob Ewald of Stewart's Allegiant Reverse Services. Learn why lenders are looking at our changing demographics and what's needed to give these protected class consumers a great closing experience From the Stewart headquarters in Houston, texas, usa it's Stewart in the Studio. We're live in 3, 2, 1.

Speaker 3:

And we're on the studio.

Speaker 1:

We're live in three, two, one and we're on the air.

Speaker 3:

Hey everyone, thanks so much for joining us today for another episode of Stuart in the studio Today we have Rob Ewald with us. Rob is with the Allegiant Reverse Services Group within the Stuart Lender Services family of companies. Rob, welcome to the show, marvin, good to see you this morning. So, rob, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into this space. A little bit about Allegiant Reverse Services.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, sure, I was in the 1031 exchange business and crossed over with quite a few title companies. One of those title companies decided to recruit me over when we sold our company and brought me into the title business and I was doing local business in four counties around the greater Sacramento market and that included forward and commercial mostly and had a small branch that was doing some business with a local company and reverse mortgage back in the early days and that company was purchased by financial freedom, which at that point was by far the nation's largest reverse mortgage lender, and they asked us to come along for a ride. It was really how that happened. We were really getting to be content experts and as they grew, we grew and that grew into about 150 people and it got to a time where we had to make a decision or I had to make a decision which direction I wanted to go.

Speaker 2:

And right around that 2006 era, when everybody knows what happened in mortgage 2007, 8, it made it easy to do a split off and do a standalone on the reverse mortgage side of things. You just saw the opportunity to grow and also became nationwide and so we founded a company in 2008 and had a chance to get off the ground for eight years there and then pivoted over and started Allegiant Reverse Services in 2016 and luckily, we were able to bring a lot of experience with us and, with that, a lot of relationships and a lot of customers that we've been doing business with now for 20 years in the industry and we became specialized and that's where we are today.

Speaker 3:

Talk a little bit about Allegiant Reverse and your position in the industry.

Speaker 2:

Marvin it's. We've had a philosophy from day one which is we take care of the borrower. And the mantra that we have is if you take care of that borrower, your client naturally gets taken care of in the process. If you're focused on that end user, which is the senior, a protected class we always like to talk about that moms and dads and uncles and whatnot and to be good in that space, you just have to realize how many extra touches and how much more care it takes to take care of those transactions. They last about twice as long as a forward transaction, a sell or a refi. So there's a whole lot more time to touch that file and assure folks that things are being handled. And I always, as anybody new to the industry, I say walk our floor and listen to our people talk. You can tell when they're talking to somebody that is one of our borrowers. You just hear by their kindness, by their patience.

Speaker 3:

Rob, tell me a little bit about your notary network that's especially trained for the reverse space.

Speaker 2:

The notary is a very vital piece of what we do. We have a very deep notary network of folks that have done and been tested and trained on reverse mortgage documents. But really it goes back to what we talked about from the very beginning, marvin, is they know when they're walking in the door it isn't going to be a 45-minute sign here and get out the door, that it's going to be a little bit longer process. We want them not knocking on a senior's door unannounced. There's all those little extra touches that take the transaction, make the transaction last a little longer.

Speaker 2:

We've seen plenty of title companies and notary companies and stuff that fail in this space because they hear that but they don't listen to it and they don't apply it to their business. And again, there's not a lot of transactions done in this industry. Right, I think we're averaging about 3000 transactions a month nationwide. There's not a lot of opportunity for failure in that and it's hard to get into the space a little bit because trying to get traction and trying to get enough volume for it to make sense, I can see why it's hard to apply all those other things and we're fortunate enough to where we're entrenched, enough that that we could apply all those and not deviate from it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, no, that's great, rob. I love that level of care because, like you were saying to me, if my mom were to get a reverse mortgage, you I would want to make sure that she had the utmost experience in that that it was carefully explained, that the person was taking their time, and I think that sort of ties in with a lot of folks wanting to age in place. We're seeing the demographics change I think you already alluded to that with now, 62 and up often are more technology literate and adept. So you've got the demographic changes. You've got the changes in the industry that have happened over the years, as reverse and now the home equity conversion mortgages are more standardized. Talk about where the industry's been and where it's going.

Speaker 2:

I think really it's two things. As reverse as it was, everybody was dedicated to space. There wasn't a lot of crossover. And now, obviously with the economy, the last couple of years, you have lenders that are looking at the reverse space saying, hey, what's going on over there? And they're looking at it now as another tool in their tool belt to go to market with and they're either acquiring some reverse lenders or, in a lot of cases, they're acquiring experienced reverse folks to come into their shops and then educate their lenders and their loan officers. Here's another option for you and again, the value add of that is, if you're an active listener, you know when this is an opportunity for a reverse person, because they say things like what are my options? I have a lot of equity in my house, I don't want big payments, I want to remodel my house, my house needs some renovation. All these different things are opportunities now for folks on the forward side to go. This is a candidate and we have the tool, and maybe a year or two ago they didn't have that tool.

Speaker 3:

That makes perfect sense. Home equity conversion mortgages or HECM loans. What's the difference between that and what we used to call reverse, back in the day?

Speaker 2:

product Finance of America, longbridge. Others have come out with their own products, a proprietary product, and it has a lot more flexibility in it. It has the ability to extract more money out of your house as well, so more value. And that's where the evolution on the reverse side of the aisle has really been and I think that they've focused into that agent in place Because, again, everything that happens in our space, I think that people have to step back and think about it in your everyday life.

Speaker 2:

Again, if your folks live in a two-story house and they're getting some age on them and they want to age in place and have the ability to have some money to have somebody come over and help them with their cooking or whatever it may be a couple of days a week or as time goes on, they need actual care. Or they want to convert a dining room into a living room, because getting up and down the stairs is not a good option. This is where they're going to access that equity and, again, there is a lot of house equity in the 62 and over demographic. I think the latest I saw was something around $14 trillion.

Speaker 3:

So much opportunity there and with lenders looking to get into the space. Obviously you've been a leader in the space for years on the title and closing side, making sure that seniors get that white glove treatment. Rob, if lenders want to get in touch with you and learn more about the space whether they're in it today or looking to get in it tomorrow how are they going to get in touch with you?

Speaker 2:

Our website is pretty comprehensive and gets you into all the right people. We have a client solutions department that monitors that and grabs onto it and makes instant interaction and we also look at it as come and let's have a conversation, because it is going to be an educational thing, and we work with all the lenders that have wholesale divisions, and most of the people that you're talking to may not be a direct lender, it may be more of a wholesale opportunity, and we can say or who are you working with? Is it Longbridge, is it Finance of America? Is it Mutual of Omaha? We have specific teams to match you up with and folks at those companies that they're probably familiar with. I would probably, in essence, if you're already in the space, talk to who you're doing business with and ask them about us. Maybe get a referral that way or an opinion about us from those folks that you may trust because you've been working with them already.

Speaker 3:

One more question for you Loan officers who are in this space today. I believe you have a lot of property data tools, a lot of research tools, things like that, that can help them. Can you just touch on that briefly?

Speaker 2:

Our client solutions department head by Adon Gutierrez. He joined us about nine, maybe 10 years ago. He does probably three or four trainings a month. That is a great access point and you could look at his library of stuff that he's done already and access that, depending on where you're at in the process if you're new to it or a 10 year veteran, where we probably have something that that that fits your need. Thank, you.