Capital Mortgage Services of Texas is expanding its footprint in the reverse mortgage space with the launch of a new wholesale channel.
The Lubbock, Texas-based full-service mortgage bank had a soft rollout of its reverse wholesale channel March 1, Mike Suits, reverse mortgage division manager, tells RMD.
“We see that the reverse mortgage product is the only product available today that allows eligible borrowers access to equity without adding the burden of more monthly debt,” he says, noting that in the United States there are about 11,000 new qualified borrowers daily. “Even with the recent changes to the program, we believe the opportunity for growth of the reverse mortgage industry is still bright.”
The company has been approved for home equity conversion mortgages (HECMs) since 1997, but has been ramping up its efforts in the space since January of this year.
“When I came on board [in January 2015] we centralized the reverse mortgage origination platform,” Suits says, noting the majority of the company’s reverse mortgage business comes from its existing forward wholesale platform as well as its recent growth in the sector.
“We’re not really known as a retail organization,” he says. “The majority of our mortgage business comes from third-party-originators and corresponding partners, so pushing toward a wholesale platform for reverse mortgages was a natural step.”
As part of the wholesale channel’s launch, the company has added new team members and repurposed personnel, he says. The new division will be housed at the company’s corporate headquarters.
The mortgage bank also has branches across 27 states, with more states being added monthly. All branches offer reverse mortgage services in addition to forward (traditional) mortgage lending. Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Nevada will soon be welcoming the Capital Mortgage Services brand, he says.
While the company is expanding its reverse mortgage operations, it’s not looking to become “a dominant player in the reverse mortgage space,” Suits says.
“We have respect for the people who have been practicing and operating and keeping the flame alive for reverse mortgages before we started to make our push in the sector,” he says. “We want to leverage our current relationships on the traditional forward lending side to make sure we can also meet their reverse mortgage servicing needs.”
Written by Cassandra Dowell
