Primary Residential Mortgage (PRMI)’s dedicated reverse mortgage center, the Steven J. Sless Group based in Owings Mills, Md., announced this week the appointment of Chris Hartley to serve as its reverse mortgage sales manager in its Owings Mills headquarters. The center also recently added reverse mortgage originator Daniel Mondragon to the Sless Group’s San Diego Branch, and Gabrielle Berry as a remote processing assistant.
“The hire of Chris Hartley will allow our reverse leadership team to better serve our 1000+ loan originators across the nation, their borrowers, and strategic partners,” said Steven Sless, reverse mortgage division president at PRMI and namesake of its dedicated reverse mortgage center. “It will also free up senior leadership — me and George Morales — enabling us to work on more global growth initiatives which will again, provide more value to PRMI originators and branch partners.”
In early 2021, PRMI made the decision to centralize its reverse mortgage-related support, including processing and operations. The Sless Group leadership team now oversees all of these functions, Sless said, and the addition of Hartley will help to facilitate additional growth for the lender.
“PRMI originators certified to originate reverse mortgage loans now have a full suite of support options available to help scale their reverse production,” Sless told RMD. “This hire comes at a time of rapid growth and will allow us to provide more robust support options, aiding our originators to close more reverse loans faster and easier than ever before. It will also enable us to focus on providing our organization with more sales training, marketing initiatives and other value-adds that will further separate PRMI from our competition.”
The growth the division has been experiencing also simply necessitates additional support for leadership, Sless added.
“PRMI’s reverse division has experienced 40% year over year growth for the past three years now and we certainly don’t plan on slowing down, despite market circumstances that have undoubtedly made our business more difficult of late,” he explained. “We are always seeking to add the best and brightest talent throughout all facets of our organization.”
Hartley relates optimism about the possibilities in front of the division and the reverse mortgage business at-large.
“I look forward to helping to grow the reverse division of Primary Residential Mortgage by training our branch partners on how and why reverse mortgages can help them to better serve their clients 55+ and their strategic partners,” Hartley said. “I am confident that I can assist our valued team members in achieving their personal production goals.”
PRMI’s reverse division also recently expanded its footprint in areas including Arizona and the Midwest after the hiring of two dedicated reverse mortgage loan originators operating out of PRMI’s Indianapolis branch, following a similar move earlier in 2021 marked by an expansion into Southern California. PRMI named the Sless Group as its dedicated reverse mortgage center in late 2021.
