Last April, Erik Morin made a return to the reverse mortgage valuation space by joining appraisal and valuation company Atlas VMS. Morin founded Landmark Network in 2007, a company that quickly became a key player on the valuation side of the reverse mortgage space before being acquired by Class Valuation in 2018.

After leaving that company, he returned to the space in 2023. Now, after more than a year back partnering with the industry, Morin sat down with HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD) to discuss what the business is dealing with now, and how valuation in the reverse mortgage space is evolving with business realities and the ever-changing appraisal management company (AMC) landscape.

Consolidation and impacts

Morin said that compared with mid-2023, the industry overall feels like it’s in a similar position, particularly as it pertains to consolidation.

“There continues to be consolidation in the AMC world,” he said. “The wider appraisal industry itself is preparing for new appraisal forms, which should be introduced next year. These forms are developed less as a form-filling process and more as an intelligent data collection method.”

Certain changes on that front could change how appraisals look and how new data is implemented into the process, he said.

“That’s on the horizon for probably the fall of next year,” he explained. “I’ve been mostly focused on the present, which is building Atlas.”

In terms of the way the reverse mortgage industry has been impacted, Morin explained that while some of the leading players have changed, the valuation space itself and its reverse interactions have been pretty stable.

“We were able to get back in and hit the ground running because there wasn’t any significant learning curve or adjustments we had to make,” he said. “Specifically, in the reverse mortgage space, there has been a need for an improved borrower experience, which we identified coming back in. This need has been proven over the course of the year as we’ve interacted with more lenders and brokers.”

Borrower experience

The need for an “improved borrower experience” might be cited by certain active lenders and brokers in the space, but they may not necessarily know how to deliver such an idea on the valuation side. Morin said it is his and Atlas’s job to know.

“The way we manage our appraisal process is different,” he said. “We try to share that not all AMCs are created equal. Our process is significantly more high touch and focused on the borrower experience, meaning we are more active with the borrower than most, or any, AMC really is.”

Similarly to the way a reverse mortgage originator is more hands on with their clients than a forward mortgage counterpart, Atlas aims to deliver something similar with its services, Morin said.

“Turn times and such are not just a data point, but ensuring we get the borrower across the finish line as easily as possible and that they are satisfied during that process, that’s our business model,” he said.

Morin and Atlas also believe that prioritizing borrower interests and balancing that with the speed at which an appraisal is completed helps everyone involved in the transaction.

“We understand on the lender side that until a loan is closed, it’s in danger of not closing,” he said. “Our job, as part of the team, is to get them their appraisal as quickly as possible, with the borrower’s interest intact. We have an impact on that.”

Open arms

When asked whether it has proven challenging to transition from being absent from the reverse mortgage valuation space to being an active part of it once again, Morin said that the experience has been gratifying in terms of generating interest from potential partners.

“The most rewarding part of my career has been returning to the space and being welcomed by our former clients,” Morin said. “Those trusted relationships were built over the more than a decade I had been in the business. At a time when many lenders have been reducing the number of AMCs on their list due to volume needs, we showed up and they completely pivoted.”

Former partners who may have scaled back on the number of vendors they were doing business with were instead prioritizing partnerships with Atlas, largely due to these prior long-standing relationships, Morin said.

“On paper, at the time, we were approved in just a handful of states — not even a national AMC in 2023 when we started,” he said. “Today, we continue to add more states, but initially, compliance teams had to approve an AMC licensed in only five states, with limited financials and work history. On paper, that didn’t make sense, but it was the relationship and trust they had in us [that carried it forward].”

That trust was founded, Morin added. Atlas is now approved with “most” reverse mortgage wholesale lenders, which includes approvals for those originating proprietary reverse mortgages that are designed for much higher-value homes.

“They trust us with those high-value valuations and reconciling multiple reports when that is the case,” he said. “Our chief appraiser was previously in that role at AAG, giving him a significant amount of experience in reverse and with the proprietary products,” he said.