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Chris Clow/RMD: How has reverse business this year been going, and how do you foresee business progressing by the time we get to December?

Tyler Plack: We just finished out May, and I thought the May results were very good. Im excited about where were headed. Some of our corporate goals have been to increase the size of our sales floor and to focus on bringing on some of these remote loan officers in the feet in the street model. The reception weve received from some of those loan officers has been very warm and exciting.

What were seeing in terms of our in-person and call-center model is that it continues to grow as well. The results have been increasing month over month for every month this year. Our expectation is that this trend will continue through the end of the year. To say that I am bullish on reverse mortgages is probably an understatement.

Plack: Yeah, we are very focused on our direct-mail model. Weve done a lot of work in the data science department. This is such a crucial corporate goal that I probably spend about half of my day focused on data science. It is that important to what we do. Some of the increase in results youre seeing is due to gains were making in the statistics world.

What that is exactly is a statistical model, but its done well and continues to improve. Were really excited about that and expect to continue growing originations, largely through our own marketing and this new external sales model that were building.

Plack: I think theres a box of consumers who want the product but dont qualify for it, and theres a box of consumers who qualify but dont want the product. What we really want to focus on is the consumers who want the product and qualify for it. Thats where the data modeling comes in.

Were looking at the overall credit picture and the overall property picture, applying a ton of math and statistical models to find who we can help the most. This results in us helping more people at a lower cost and making sure that the people were talking to can actually be helped, rather than people who would love our help but unfortunately will never qualify for it. So, its about the intersection of both the level of interest of the consumer and our projections on their qualification.

Plack: Its a mixture of everything. Theres some data we take from other sources, and theres a ton of data we have internally that were using as well. We throw all that into a model that helps us decide, on a week-to-week basis, who is going to have the highest propensity to take the loan, close and fund.

Plack: I think there are certainly gains to be made through better modeling, but I dont know that its the key for everyone. I know its worked well for me due to our analytically minded team, but for the average loan officer or sales manager, I wouldnt focus on the data. I would focus on making connections with financial advisers and planners, and using traditional methods. With scale, it makes sense the way we do it, but there is more than one way to originate loans.

Any company should take a multifaceted, multimodal approach. We might be really good at direct mail, but we could be missing out on referral networks and that style of origination. Were working to build into that. For those who dont have exposure to direct-mail marketing, perhaps they should spend some time in it. Just like an investment portfolio, your marketing strategy should be diversified.

Look for more from Tyler Plack and South River on RMD soon.

Excerpt from:

South River president on reverse mortgage business, data science and priorities - HousingWire