This week’s HW+ member spotlight features Joe Langner, CEO at ReverseVision. Langner has more than 30 years of senior leadership experience, driving growth at marquee mortgage technology and software companies. As a former executive vice president and chief sales officer at Ellie Mae, Langner helped execute the firm’s initial public offering in 2011. His other leadership positions include serving as CEO at Blue Sage, president at PCLender and executive vice president and general manager at Sage. Langner is a thought leader and subject matter expert in the mortgage space, and regularly contributes and participates in industry panels, roundtables and conferences.
Below, Langner answers questions about the housing industry:
HousingWire: To start off, what is your current favorite HW+ article?
Joe Langner: I’d like to say it’s HW’s acquisition of Reverse Mortgage Daily in June of this year, but technically it wasn’t HW+ content; and, it’s a bit self-serving with ReverseVision being exclusive to the reverse mortgage business! But in all seriousness, I don’t have a particular favorite article. I read HW+ consistently and always gain significant value from the articles.
HousingWire: What has been the most useful tech tool for you?
Joe Langner: API’s and interconnectivity between software solutions.
HousingWire: When do you feel like a success in your job?
Joe Langner: My customers’ expectations have been exceeded and my team feels empowered, trusted and valued both internally and externally.
HousingWire: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Joe Langner: “Put yourself in the other person’s shoes.” In college, I studied biochemistry/genetics and now I’m leading a mortgage software company. One key to my success in business is to ask a lot of questions and always listen to what your customers, peers, influencers, and teams say.
I learned most of what I know in business by practicing this. When I ask questions for understanding and when I give answers to questions I’ve been asked, I always try to communicate from the perspective of my customer, peer, team member, etc. I’ve found that by looking at issues from the other person’s perspective, it gives you the opportunity to get out of your own head and look at things from the other side of the equation.
HousingWire: What keeps you up at night and why?
Joe Langner: The prospect that our seniors could be placed in the wrong mortgage for their age and financial status, and that reverse mortgage products could and should have been offered, but they weren’t because the lender that the borrower contacted does not offer them. We need to look out for our seniors and make sure they get what they need, and don’t get what they don’t need.
HousingWire: What’s one thing that people aren’t paying attention to that you think they should be paying attention to?
Joe Langner: Namely, it’s the absence of reverse mortgage programs being in a lender’s overall product offering. While the reverse process is a bit different from forward lending, it is a misconception that it’s an arduous undertaking to get into that side of the business and that it takes a long time to get deals done.
With the right technology and partners, however, it’s simple to set up and begin offering reverse products to our seniors. Currently, there is a $7 trillion reverse mortgage market sitting dormant in untapped equity among seniors. That’s a massive market opportunity that can add consistent revenue for years to come.
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