A developer of reverse mortgage technology has become an operator. Mortgage leads and a call center will initially power a retail channel, while a correspondent channel has also been opened.
An announcement indicating a major expansion came Wednesday from Reverse Mortgage Solutions Inc.
The Spring, Texas-based firm was formed exactly four years ago to provide loan servicing and private-label sub-servicing technology for reverse mortgage products.
But today’s statement said it has now “moved aggressively into the reverse origination sector.”
The bold move comes as government-insured reverse mortgage originations have tumbled to less than 73,000 units last year from more than 111,000 in 2009.
But a declining base of originators — the number of active HECM lenders has fallen to 959 as of February from 1,311 last year according to data maintained by Reverse Market Insight — could mean a bigger slice of a smaller pie.
It also follows Wells Fargo Home Mortgage’s planned exit from wholesale reverse mortgage lending on March 18 and Bank of America Home Loans’ disclosure that it would abandon reverse mortgage lending altogether.
Business at RMS will be closed through retail and correspondent channels.
Retail loan prospects will be generated from a new call center at its headquarters, and leads will be passed on to outside sales people. RMS has also has entered into several exclusive lead generation contracts to jump start the operation.
Heading up the new lending division is RMS Senior Vice President Michael D. Kent. New executives working under Kent include Ralph Rosynek, VP – national correspondent production manager; Ellie Johnson, VP, correspondent operations; Gary Bauch, senior VP, national sales executive; and Audra Pickens, VP – regional sales executive.
Today’s news release also indicated that RMS has new asset management capabilities for performing and non-performing forward mortgages and REOs.
In April 2010, RMS co-founder Marc Helm replaced Ken Austin as president of RMS.
