1st Reverse Mortgage USA might hint at its product offering right in its name, but over the past few months, the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage lender has started a major push into the forward world.
The Lakewood, Colo.-based firm launched its 1st Mortgage Solutions USA channel this year, offering conventional, FHA, and VA loans.
1st Reverse Mortgage USA vice president Dan Harder told RMD in a phone call that both flavors of the “1st Mortgage” brand — themselves divisions of forward lender Cherry Creek Mortgage Company, Inc. — plan to feed off of each other in the coming months, as the firms position the shared offering as a way for banks to cast a wider net while searching for loan customers.
“Our whole plan is to provide services for salespeople to integrate all products,” Harder told RMD, adding that he predicts a trend of “forward” expansion into the HECM world in the coming years.
“A lot more forward companies will be involved than what we’ve seen in the past, and what we see today,” he said. “I just think it’s a natural growth of this product.”
1st Reverse and 1st Mortgage operate as “fulfillment centers” for banks, Harder said, performing all of the back-end loan work — including processing, underwriting, closing, and servicing. He emphasized that the 1st brand names are simply divisions of Cherry Creek, with significant overlap; the Greenwood Village, Colo.-based Cherry Creek will also soon begin offering HECM products from 1st Reverse Mortgage USA to its network of customers, Harder said.
As part of the forward expansion, the company announced the recent hire of Jeff Ausman as its regional market manager, overseeing hiring and development at the 1st Mortgage Solutions USA arm.
“Jeff’s passion and loan officer recruiting experience are great assets that will help us implement our vision and presence as a top-notch mortgage lender,” Harder said in a release announcing the hire.
“He possesses expertise in an array of different areas of mortgage banking and has a unique ability to effectively build sales teams establishing lasting relationships. We are fortunate to have someone of Jeff’s talent join our organization.”
Ausman has spent more than 20 years in the mortgage lending industry, previously held positions at Bank of the West, Guaranteed Rate, and Ausman Mortgage Corporation.
Written by Alex Spanko
