Before meeting with a potential borrower at a location other than their home, you may want to drive by their home first…
About John Luddy: John has trained reverse mortgage professionals how to be successful when sitting face-to-face at the kitchen table with prospective HECM borrowers. Norcom is looking for qualified loan officer candidates. To learn more call 1-860-507-2582 or email John Luddy here
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Editor in Chief: HECMWorld.com
As a prominent commentator and Editor in Chief at HECMWorld.com, Shannon Hicks has played a pivotal role in reshaping the conversation around reverse mortgages. His unique perspectives and deep understanding of the industry have not only educated countless readers but has also contributed to introducing practical strategies utilizing housing wealth with a reverse mortgage.
Shannon’s journey into the world of reverse mortgages began in 2002 as an originator and his prior work in the financial services industry. Shannon has been covering reverse mortgage news stories since 2008 when he launched the podcast HECMWorld Weekly. Later, in 2010 he began producing the weekly video series The Industry Leader Update and Friday’s Food for Thought.
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1 Comment
Mr. Luddy,
About a decade ago, we had a prospect who met us at a fast food place. He seemed nice enough so we drove by his house which was about a block away (in a nice community in LA) without his knowledge when the meeting was over. We drove up and down the block but saw nothing obviously wrong with the outside for several vans in the driveway, two of which looked they should be junked.
The prospect warmed up to us and asked us what he would need to do to his house. So we agreed to come to his home before he would have to get an appraisal. When we got there it turned out all of the vans needed to go to the dump but that was just the outside. The steps to the front porch were nothing but loose bricks neatly piled together as steps.
Then the door to the house opened. The house was nothing but newspapers and books piled floor to ceiling and wall to wall with nothing more than a three foot space going from door to door to allow for free movement from room to room. The refrigerator and all kitchen appliances blended in so well with the books and newpapers we did not recognize them at first. The bathroom was in about the same condition and his bedroom had a three foot walkway to his bed. There was literally no place to sit except outside on the porch.
We asked to see the back of the house and hidden by bushes was everything from ice and roller skates to sky poles, engine blocks to transmissions and much, much, more, all neatly piled to one side. It turned out behind his house was another connected house that had been his deceased sibling’s. When we asked to see it, he explained that that house was no different than his except there had been a cave in of the books and newspapers that would not allow him access into that house.
It was obvious right off the bat we were dealing with a hoarder. It turns out his mother had trained both he and his sibling the art of hoarding. When we told him that his house would not qualify without a lot of work, he was heart broken. A few days before showing us the house LA City had been called in to look at the house by neighbors. He was now looking at thousands of dollars in cleanup costs with no way to pay for them. Unfortunately he was broke living on state disability so he could not finance the costs. As it turned out much of the roof of his sibling’s house had been destroyed a few years before by fire. I was surprised he and his house survived it.