Ryan Ogata has been leading the reverse mortgage division speed — Recently renamed Guaranteed rate — for about a year, but the department has grown significantly in that time.
Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) Endorsement Data Reverse Market Insights RMI’s Jon McCue noted in a recent interview with RMI that the company’s endorsement volume is up about 870% through July house lineReverse Mortgage Daily (RMD).
To better understand the company’s trajectory, Ogata recently sat down with RMD to discuss the dynamics of Rate’s reverse mortgage business and how it has grown during his time at the helm.
Learn and grow
The tail shape comes from the forward mortgage business. He noted that while he learned a lot about the unique properties of reverse conduits, there are also many similarities between forward and reverse lending.
“One similarity is that frontier space is a zero-sum game,” Ogata said. “Every company is fighting for its share, which is the mortgage market. For example, when interest rates move in our favor, a predetermined business opportunity arises: forward mortgage notes with higher interest rates. Every customer qualifies for refinancing, and each company then tries to grab as much market share as possible.
There has been recent growth in reverse units within forward-focused companies, with growth being particularly evident among leading lenders that have made significant acquisitions, including reverse mortgage units. Examples include Cherry Creek MortgageThe inverse division of is obtained guild mortgage and Liquid Mortgage Hire a reputable reverse mortgage leader.
Ogata has noticed these developments.
“I read an article that pointed out how other companies had succeeded by developing reverse departments, but they seemed to be using a similar forward strategy,” Ogata said. “They recruit an existing team from another company that is already doing reverse mortgages, or acquire that company. Is that really growth? In fact, they are not creating a market and bringing nothing to the industry. Any changes – they just took the originals that were already produced under a different name.
Ogata said Rate’s growth doesn’t come from recruiting existing reverse mortgage professionals, but the company isn’t opposed to doing so either.
“In my opinion, we’re not ready to do that,” he said. “We have no value proposition because we entered the space with relatively little contrarian experience or production. Why would anyone be interested in joining our organization when we have no value to add? But here we are, doing this ourselves, Didn’t bring in a team that already had a business.
Because of this, the value proposition has changed, he added.
“I think we can now offer something of value to reverse initiators,” Ogata said. “We are now actively marketing the product to a wide range of customers and referral partners.”
Rate’s forward loan originators are pursuing reverse sales opportunities, Ogata said, and that’s a no-brainer.
“This is consistent with what I originally talked about when I took on this role – the opportunity to create markets,” he said. “We’re not benefiting from the pre-existing zero-sum game in reverse space where companies just take jobs away from original creators. We’re out looking for customers and without our marketing efforts and what we’re trying to do To achieve their goals, they may not consider a reverse mortgage.
Utilizing the “Forward Machine”
When asked what LOs he has brought into Rate’s reverse department, Ogata said the department’s growth has mainly come from people in support capabilities, as the reverse department does not have a large number of dedicated LOs.
“The way we structured things in Rate was we chose to leverage the existing forwarding machinery,” Ogata said. “It has arguably one of the most productive sales forces in the entire industry. We try to get them to focus on the reverse opportunity — how it can be a good product to help the right buyers and retirees — and really get them to be Sales teams who understand reverse mortgages need to present it as an option when it makes sense to people of the right age.
When deals come up, the inside sales team helps build them, which benefits from a supportive approach.
“The inside sales team can help communicate with clients that forward loan officers may not be able to communicate due to lack of experience,” he said. “So instead of trying to have our own reverse loan officers out on the ground selling reverse mortgages, we’re building a strong support structure.”
As a relative outsider, Ogata had a lot to learn when taking over the department. He explains that his 20 years of forward lending experience helped him develop his reverse lending approach.
“I’ve been a forward for over 20 years, only turning around last year. That’s where I’m familiar, and I think that makes me the best choice for a company like ours, where our focus is on enabling the forward sales team to offers reverse mortgages as part of its product offering,” he said. “Instead of seeing this polarization where you’re either a contrarian or a forward, we’re building it into their standard business.”
He said this background helped him develop an approach to building a mortgage team with specific goals, but it required a lot of learning along the way.
“It’s not been an easy road. I admit, I probably thought it would be easier than it turned out to be,” he said. “But, like anything, hard work brings results and I’m excited to see what we’ve accomplished.”
