“Changes in the mortgage business just keep comin’,
fast & furious! Regardless of what happens,
here’s how to make money now,
in today’s mortgage market!” –Scott Tucker
There are new opportunities in the absence of sub-prime,
option ARMs, stated income, & all the rest!
What’s working now…
FHA Streamline refi’s are a stronger area of opportunity than ever. FHA is simply not going away, and is being grown by politicians needing cover from constituents left with fewer & fewer alternatives.
Targeted mailing lists of folks currently in FHA loans, needing Streamline refi’s are readily available. Further, with decreased mail volumes from others in the mortgage business, the mailbox simply isn’t as full, so your direct mail offer gets more attention.
And, there is a postage increase coming from the U.S. Postal Service this month, which will cause other brokers, lenders, bankers, to foolishly mail less, and that’s just what you and I want them to do!
If you hang your license with a broker who is FHA-approved, who also happens to do manual underwriting, you can do loans that no one else can. FHA manual underwrites are “the new sub-prime.”
Some FHA shops even offer done-for-you FHA processing.
Reverse mortgages are a rapidly growing niche as well. While the “big boys” are currently doing a ton of business in this niche, many brokers & LOs remain needlessly on the sidelines.
FHA-insured reverses dominate the reverse mortgage marketplace, with 93% of all reverse mortgages being of the FHA-insured variety. FHA-insured reverses offer your borrowers higher LTVs than does the conventional Fannie Mae HomeKeeper®. This is a big reason to be with an FHA-approved broker.
Borrowers have to be 62 years-old, but need no income, credit, etc. They never make a payment, and their heirs get the house back with equity still left in it! Also, the money they get from the reverse is not taxable, and cannot reduce their Social Security, pension, and other benefits.
Borrowers can have their home already mortgaged as high as 85 LTV, and still benefit from a reverse mortgage!
Remember, they only need to be 62 years-old to qualify for a reverse. The oldest Baby Boomers are turning 63 this year. And, in 1946, one year after World War II ended, more people were born than in the previous decade! This is not an area you want to ignore.
Baby Boomers are also much more accustomed to the idea of always having a mortgage on their home. And, whether they “like” mortgages or not, “The Greatest Generation,” those who lived through World War II, they usually use a reverse for taking care of things they have to take care of: roof repairs, prescriptions expenses, medical bills…or perhaps they only need more non-taxable income.
Then, there is the opportunity of selling suitable insurance products to reverse mortgage borrowers. This must be done after the reverse, and must be a separate transaction.
That is, you can’t sell a reverse to a senior with the idea that they buy an annuity. However, you can return after the reverse is done-and-over-with, and sell suitable insurance products to the reverse mortgage borrower.
Products that reverse mortgage borrowers may benefit from are, on a case-by-case basis, annuities, long term care insurance, whole life insurance, etcetera, and so on.
It’s important to remember that the insurance industry is highly-regulated, their marketing ineffective, and this leaves the door open to you, the marketer of reverse mortgages!
You use your relationship from the reverse to sell suitable insurance products. This gets you around the need for insurance marketing pieces.
Prime ARM re-sets are something that is still strong, even more so in the face of recent loan limit increases for conforming loans.
Remember, “prime” or not, most “prime” borrowers have all the same problems that a sub-prime borrower, an FHA borrower, or a cash-strapped senior has.
“Prime” borrowers have credit cards, car loans, you name it. They’ve got kids in many cases. Bills every which way. They need out of their last ARM, and into a new ARM, or into a new FRM.
They can not afford to do nothing. This is why you should be effectively marketing to them for their business!
Low-LTV sub-prime can still be done, but, as you are probably already aware, stated income is darn-near non-existent nowadays. In full-doc, low-LTV sub-prime lists can be had, and money can still be made there.
There certainly is decreased competition there, so this space should be tested with solid direct response marketing.
Remember, it doesn’t matter what the media says about the mortgage business, a whole lot of smart folks are still making a killing. Sometimes, you just don’t happen to talk to the ones doing so.
And some are making more now that everyone else has gotten out of the business!
For more information, please go here right now!
Sincerely, your friend,
The Mortgage Marketing Genius®
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