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In the late 2000s, Ryan Schmidt was a restaurant manager who had no idea about reverse mortgage products. But it didn’t take long for that to change, and Schmidt now serves as vice president of partner engagement. american financial reverse (FAR), a market leader in the U.S. reverse mortgage industry.
No two reverse mortgage professionals follow the same path into the business. In the latest edition of RMD’s “Origins” feature series, we interviewed Mr. Schmidt to learn about his journey from restaurant manager to industry-leading business partnership with his mortgage company. Mortgage lender.
humble beginnings
Schmidt worked as a restaurant manager in the late 2000s and heard rumors of a potential opportunity in 2009 from one of his employees.
“One of my employees said her mother worked in some kind of loan business,” Schmidt said. “I didn’t even know much about mortgages back then. I was younger. So I thought, ‘Let’s go see what this is all about.’ She had a pamphlet, but I had no idea what a reverse mortgage was. To be honest, if I had known about reverse mortgages back then, I probably wouldn’t have gotten into this business. ”
But it didn’t take long for Schmidt to get real career opportunities. Despite his reputational problems, Mr. Schmidt looks back on his early experiences with gratitude.
“It was life-changing for me,” he said. “It gave me a sense of purpose. I started working as a loan officer at Finance of America when it was founded. urban financial group, long before growth begins. I’ve seen all of that growth firsthand, and along the way I’ve been fortunate to have had some great mentors, starting in Sales and eventually Marketing as he worked his way up to Director and Vice President. I was blessed. ”
But he started out as a loan originator, which he credits with providing most of the specific knowledge about reverse mortgage products.
“[It came from] “We were sitting across the table helping people, but even though we were a call center and smaller, we were still going to people’s homes, so it was a little different,” he said. .
Schmidt talks about driving to small towns like Poteau, Oklahoma, and talking to customers in their homes. Schmidt was impressed by their reaction to what the product could do for them. However, he had some other interesting experiences.
challenges and opportunities
It reminds me of an encounter I had when I was a loan officer. Ms. Schmidt visited the prospective buyer’s home with her adult daughter present, and her mother was clearly opposed to the idea of receiving a reverse mortgage. She asked him for a business card, but Schmidt didn’t have one.
“I couldn’t make business cards,” he said. “I had my documents with me, but I couldn’t show my business card, so the police were called.”
As an early experience in his reverse mortgage career, the incident left Mr. Schmidt a bit shaken and he openly wondered what he had gotten himself into. But as he had more opportunities to work with older customers, he became more interested, he said, and eventually took a sales management position at the company.
“I had a team and we were still producing. And this was at a time when this product was geared towards more needs-based borrowers,” he said. “So it was very empowering for me to be able to save people’s homes and see people who were able to fix their homes and make them habitable. And I felt like I was connected to these people. felt.”
Schmidt then progressed further from sales management to become regional manager at what is now FAR. He gained access to many field loan officers during this time and credits his sales management acumen with ultimately leading him to work on the company’s customer relationship management (CRM) system.
“Snowball”, the role of a mentor
Eventually, Mr. Schmidt was assigned to a different role that exposed him to many of FAR’s business dynamics.
“That snowballed into retail marketing director, where I was responsible for everything from customer service reporting to answering calls,” he said. “Then around 2020, two weeks after COVID-19 hit, I thought about wholesaling.”
The pandemic is generally an uncertain time for everyone, and Schmidt told FAR that he was invited because of his affinity for the technology side of the business. Technology has become significantly more important to the business during the pandemic, and his work there ultimately helped him earn his current position as Vice President of Partner Engagement.
Over the past 15 years, Mr. Schmidt has gained significant experience across many key aspects of the reverse mortgage business. He credits strong mentors with helping him quickly understand the various elements.
“What’s really important is to have good mentors, to be open, to be willing to listen and learn,” he said. “I think the biggest problem some originators have is they think they know everything. So I was able to take a step back and absorb as much information as possible. As people get older, they start to think they know more and absorb less information, and that’s when their growth starts to stagnate.
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