Christina Harmes Hika has been busy since beginning a business final summer time that focuses on coaching professionals to tackle reverse mortgage business. Not solely has she employed extra employees to assist meet demand, however she’s additionally labored to create software program to help mortgage originators with filling out key info and arranged a hybrid digital and in-person occasion.
We sat down with Harmes Hika to get an replace on how business is progressing, what the software program will obtain and extra.
Demand for reverse mortgage coaching
Harmes Hika says it has served greater than 200 shoppers because it was established final yr. Demand has additionally led to the addition of a higher-level course on high of the extra fundamental providing she began with.
“Finding your ‘why’ and speaking that successfully are a few of the most essential issues,” she stated. “Understanding [Life Expectancy Set Asides (LESAs)], and understanding all the alternative ways to go about presenting a file to a lender. Even the reverse mortgage panorama [is important to understand], since there are many totally different merchandise on the market.”
Christina Harmes Hika
Courses are additionally being developed to help mortgage officers with instructing referral companions about the nuances of reverse mortgages, together with components catered towards educating monetary planners and licensed actual property brokers.
Social media advertising is one other element, with the aim of instructing shoppers methods to publish helpful reverse borrower info to social platforms.
There can also be coaching for the extra emotional nature of reverse mortgage transactions, she defined.
“There are actually nuanced ways in which we’re instructing folks to beat their fears, and the way to deal with the objections or the way to deal with the emotional aspect of issues,” she stated. “Because quite a lot of our gross sales course of is an emotional sale, the place we’re actually being there for our shoppers in a method that I by no means skilled on the ahead aspect.”
Harmes Hika stated that at the outset of the business, she was pretty conservative in her estimates concerning demand. But the demand has been constant, resulting in the creation of a hybrid occasion for each in-person and digital attendees.
Thus far, the business has had 10 personal coaching shoppers. While Harmes Hika was the solely coach initially, she has since expanded to a staff of 4 folks. Clients are distributed throughout the states that usually have the highest shares of business: California, Texas, Florida, Arizona and Colorado.
“It’s been a extremely good trip up to now,” she stated.
Event and software program rollout
The occasion will happen on the night of Monday, June 5 at the Sonesta Irvine, sooner or later previous to the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association holding its Western Regional Meeting at the similar venue.
In phrases of why this was the proper time for the occasion, Harmes Hika stated it grew from the want for coaching shoppers to totally have interaction with the materials in a method that different codecs could not permit for.
“I’m glad sitting at house coaching,” she stated. “But we had been requested sufficient instances to have one thing in particular person the place coaching shoppers may actually immerse themselves, and in order that’s the place we’re at.”
Attendees, whether or not in-person or digital, can strive the software program, known as “HECM Hero,” out throughout the occasion, she stated.
“We put quite a lot of the essential parameters in order that it’s sort of like a TurboTax, the place the LO sends their shopper a hyperlink, and the shopper solutions their questions,” she defined. “Based on some parameters we’re setting as corporations, originators or software program builders, the software program interprets their info to allow them to truly see some illustrations and play with their numbers themselves.”
When somebody runs a bigger division and it’s not clear the way to worth or construction a mortgage, the software program is designed to characteristic info to make that course of simpler. However, the software program is barely designed to assist with the gross sales course of and isn’t a mortgage origination system (LOS). It creates graphic representations of reverse mortgage loans that ought to help with the gross sales course of, Harmes Hika stated.
“In the ahead area, mortgage officers are used to clicking a button, and so they ship an e mail to their shopper,” she stated. “That shopper solutions all the utility questions and uploads all the paperwork, and the mortgage officer doesn’t have to essentially do an entire lot. In reverse, we haven’t had one thing like that. This is that device.”
Harmes Hika hopes the new software program platform shall be a useful gizmo for each the new and seasoned business professionals. Industry members excited about the occasion can discover extra info on the business’ web site.
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