Rate’s Jesse Allen on the progress of a reverse mortgage revamp

In November, Chicago-based mortgage lender Rate — formerly known as Guaranteed Rate — announced that it was “revamping” its dedicated reverse mortgage division by appointing two longtime industry veterans to lead its efforts with older borrowers.

Industry veteran Jesse Allen, formerly of OneTrust Home Loans and American Advisors Group (AAG) is now leading the division as its new president. Allen has been busy since then, he said in an interview with HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD).

RMD and Allen spoke on the sidelines of the recent National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) Western Regional Meeting in Irvine, California. He explained what has been done so far, what he hopes to do in the near term and how things have been coming together since taking the lead.

The nature of the build

Allen said his goal as he moves forward with leading the division is not so much to “rebuild it,” since there were elements that were working well before he came aboard. But as an industry veteran, he said he found a chance to further build “on top of” the processes that were working, which has helped to “fortify the foundation” of the division.

“Most of what we’re focused on now is riding the wave daily,” Allen said. “We’re focused on execution, getting our sales force in front of customers, and having good conversations and manufacturing the loans well. We’ve made the platform more scalable, and so now, it’s all about daily execution while we’re also focused on completing the build.”

That means expanding the distribution footprint for the reverse division. And this requires not just adding new salespeople but finding the right kinds of salespeople who can excel in a reverse mortgage environment — which often has different priorities for connecting with customers than the forward lending side, he said.

Allen also said that Rate is a dynamic company with momentum, which he has been able to direct into the effort to further build the reverse division. And Allen’s prior industry experience helped him identify some operational changes to potentially streamline reverse operations further.

Existing resources, needed work

Rate managed to become one of the top 20 Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) lenders in the country last year. This helped expose some efficiencies that Allen said could still be used as he looks to shape the division further.

“We had some really good product-level specialists on the sales side of the ball, and also in fulfillment,” Allen explained. “We had a good, strong library of marketing content, so there was a baseline, which was nice not to have to build.”

Defining the division’s goals going forward required other work to be done. This included identifying and implementing a stronger loan origination system (LOS), setting up distribution channels, reviewing compensation plans, and further developing customer relationship management (CRM) systems and priorities.

“There was a lot of nuts and bolts, foundational stuff that we had to build on top of what was there,” Allen said. “And that’s why we would run so fast, because we did have a good responsive platform, and then we had to add a lot of new stuff. But we have a seasoned team, so we were able to move very quickly.”

As he envisions the progress so far, Allen thinks the division has about 80% “of the track laid” in getting to where he’d like to be. To close the remaining gap, he and others in the company are prioritizing system integration to get the reverse division and other divisions talking to each other more seamlessly.

“Getting more efficiency in our workflow and our processes, all of that stuff will happen over the next four to five months,” he said. “Which is all necessary to make sure we can deliver the right client experience, manufacturing quality, cycle time, all that nuts-and-bolts stuff.

“We have to get to what I’ll call ‘Gen 2’ of that. We’re now functional, we feel good, but now we want to build it for scale, and we don’t want to compromise on manufacturing quality or experience.”

Incorporating different expertise

Allen will be incorporating multiple constituencies to consider what the reverse division can do going forward. This includes traditional mortgage LOs who could refer business to the reverse division, as well as input from real estate agents and homebuilders.

“It’s a complex web of constituents, and we need everyone to feel really great about the quality of the work and the pace of the work,” he said. “We have a long road map around sequencing that and trying to prioritize that sufficiently. And then on the sales side, continuing to expand our reach, add distribution and add salespeople who have the right skill set for reverse.”

Reverse mortgage professionals, he said, need to maintain their ability to serve older borrowers and their unique needs in comparison to forward mortgage professionals and customers.

“You need the mortgage banking skill set, and then you need to be able to work well with the seniors and their constituents,” Allen said. “And then, ultimately, you should have an appreciation for the demographic trends and the side effects of them. It’s a tall order to, I think, be a really effective loan officer in this business.”