David Heilman, Principal local finance When he got involved in the reverse mortgage industry, the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, native didn’t feel like he had to change the way he worked with seniors.
Having experience in the healthcare field before entering the mortgage business primarily meant transitioning myself from serving the physical health needs of America’s seniors to now serving their financial health needs.
Hellman recently house line’s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD) reflects on his journey into the industry in the latest installment of its “Origins” series, which tracks industry professionals’ paths into the field.
Shift from health care
Heilman initially worked in the field of healthcare administration and focused his undergraduate studies on business administration in the healthcare field. He continued to practice at the hospital system with the intention of pursuing a full career in the field, but he began to feel that a change might be needed.
“I worked for a major health care group in the greater Charleston area, but I felt like I wasn’t moving fast enough,” Heilman said. “It was more of a corporate environment than I expected.”
Soon after, a fateful meeting took place with a couple who had been active in the reverse mortgage business since around 1995, who noted his decision to leave the hospital system in 2007.
“I told them, ‘I don’t know what a reverse mortgage is, but I know you two are the best people I’ve ever met, and I’d love to learn about your business,'” Heilman recalled. “In a nutshell, that’s how I started. I had mentors who mentored me and they are still my mentors to this day. I was thinking about it from a senior services perspective rather than a mortgage or real estate perspective.
When asked how steep the learning curve was to make the switch, Heilman said it took him about three months of research and relied heavily on faith to make it happen.
“I’m still very young in my career, in my twenties, about to get married, so a lot of changes have happened in my life,” Heilman said. “This is just another change in that.”
In what he calls three months of “deep dive,” he quickly learned what a reverse mortgage was, what the market was like and the dynamics involved in entering the industry. Heilman credits his mentors Paul and Barbara Franklin as major factors in prompting his transformation.
“I did all the groundwork, and of course I knew the capabilities of the people who were reaching out to me, which was very attractive,” he said. “If I didn’t know the quality of the people I was working with, I wouldn’t have taken that leap of faith. Not everyone has that advantage.
Pick up the pace
Three months of research finally led Heilman to make the leap in 2007. Of course, not long after I entered the industry, the 2008 financial crisis hit.
But he says the fact that this disruption happened so early in his reverse mortgage career helped solidify in him the idea that change is the norm in the industry.
“I’ve gotten used to a lot of changes in the business, and I’ve become stronger over the years because of it,” he said. “I continue to zigzag forward and adapt to changing times.”
In 2012, the Heilmann and Franklin families joined a larger team. Heilman helped make the transition but exited on his own in 2018.
“I officially became independent in 2018, but by then I had 10 or 11 years of reverse mortgage experience,” Heilman said. “When I joined them in ’07, I had the privilege of being a salaried employee. You talked about people trying to get started in this business, and it’s very difficult, especially when your only income comes from checkouts or completed sales.
Starting his own company was a decision that took more than a year to execute, but Heilman credits his mentors and persistence in business with enabling him to make the leap on his own.
Cross-border skills
When asked if he had any special cross-over skills from healthcare that he brought to the reverse mortgage industry, Heilman attributed his early experience in healthcare to his ability to build rapport with high-level clients.
“At the hospital, I was involved in a senior affinity program that involved providing programs, speakers and services to seniors in this group,” he said. “It’s really a huge marketing effort to actually bring them to the hospital in a non-critical situation.”
As a result, he spends a lot of time in direct contact with seniors one-on-one or in non-medical situations. This proved to be a crucial intelligence-gathering exercise for him.
“I have to understand their needs—health needs, lifestyle needs,” he said. “So, one of my big advantages is obviously having that background and understanding the clients that I’m going to be serving, whether it’s in health care or financial services. I think that’s where most loan officers struggle to make the transition – you have to be comfortable with these Customers have a lot of patience.
Heilman arrived a few minutes late for the interview because it takes time and effort to build rapport with clients, a process that takes time and patience to cultivate.
“They want to talk, especially older people. Baby boomers and the people we serve now are more transaction-oriented, but some older people really just want to talk, and they have the time,” he said. “Patience is probably the best quality I’ve learned—the patience to listen to my customers and learn more about who they are and what they need.”
