Despite this, she admitted it was still “an uphill battle” to convince borrowers to embrace the product.
“We approach every interaction with a customer to create an advocate; then an advocate to create an evangelist at every touchpoint,” she said.
“We’ve built our entire company strategy around shifting that perception, and we’ve got to re-educate the market so that people aren’t afraid to explore the benefits of the tool.”
That period of education can last as long as six months and involve the borrower, their family and their financial advisor before they decide to move forward.
Spearheading FAR’s reverse mortgage campaign is a new product called EquityAvail, the first under the umbrella of retirement mortgages, involving a low payment, 10-year term that automatically flips to a no-payment loan after the term ends, allowing the lender to offer borrowers a higher LTV.