Nick Petrillo Makes Reverse Make Sense
Reverse mortgages are having a moment — and Nick Petrillo is leading the charge. As Divisional VP, he’s building a team of experts with 250+ years of experience (no, that’s not a typo) and turning reverse into a trusted tool for retirement planning.
In this episode, Nick shares why financial planners have flipped their stance, how loan officers can get certified and why CCM is all-in on home equity as a strategic asset. If you think reverse isn’t for you, this one’s about to change your mind.
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Episode Transcript
Hunter: Welcome to CCM Talks. I am Hunter Marckwardt, and I am here today with Nick Petrillo, who is our master at reverse mortgages. So, Nick, first of all, thanks for, thanks for joining us today.
Nick: Thank you for having me.
Hunter: Tell us, I mean, we’re, I would say CCM is relatively new to reverse mortgages. You’re not, your team is blowing up. Tell us a little bit more about what’s going on with the team right now.
Nick: Well, first and foremost, the executive staff has about 250 combined total years in the business. Everyone, whether it’s operation sales, has ten plus years experience just to reverse mortgages.
Hunter: Okay.
Nick: So the team is like the Harvard of reverse mortgages.
Hunter: Yeah.
Nick: And it’s they’re passionate and like we don’t take this specifically just as a job. We take this as a true passion with the product. And to be at CCM, you know, company of this size to embrace this product, it’s very exciting.
Hunter: Loan officers that are listening to this like, can you explain reverse mortgage?
Nick: Sure. Well, it’s a way for people over the age of 55 on proprietary products, 62 for the HECM product.
Hunter: By the way, everyone says HECM. What is HECM?
Nick: Nice question – home equity conversion mortgage.
Hunter: Okay. Thank you.
Nick: So for years people didn’t want to say reverse. So they started saying HECM, home equity conversion mortgage, that’s the one that’s insured by, by FHA. But there are proprietary products we call jumbo, but, but a reverse mortgage is the way that they, that people over the age of 55 can tap equity. It’s tax free money. It doesn’t count as income.
And, they can utilize the equity in their home for basically anything. They can take it to buy investment properties. There’s actually a credit line available where it grows. So there’s many different things that they can do with it. It’s the ability to live in place.
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Hunter: Okay. When you say like an equity line, explain that a little bit more.
Nick: Sure.
Hunter: This is all from my own personal …
Nick: So, there’s something called a principal limit. That’s how much we can lend the borrower.
Hunter: Okay.
Nick: So it’s based on the youngest borrower’s age and the value of the home.
Hunter: Okay.
Nick: So let’s say you have a $500,000 property value and the person is 62 years old. Well, they have a life expectancy, you know, into the late 80s. So we can, we can lend them less than we could to an 80-year-old.
Hunter: Got it.
Nick: So if the value of the home is $500,000, we might be able to give them a $200,000 credit line.
Hunter: Okay.
Nick: And that $200,000 can be utilized for a term payment on a monthly basis. There’s a tenure that goes for life, or they can pull out a lump sum. There’s options, or you can leave it in the credit line. And if you leave it in the credit line, there’s a growth rate. So based on the expected rate that will actually grow. And your grandfather, and it’s a non-recourse loan. So it’s like a, it’s, it’s a tax free nest egg.
Hunter: Okay.
Nick: If you don’t want to go into your retirement account.
Hunter: Yeah. Which a lot I mean, people struggle on I mean, so much net worth is built in the equity in the home as opposed to their investments. Right?
Nick: Yeah. Actually the number is this $17 trillion estimated in equity locked up in people’s homes. $13.7 trillion of it are people 62 and over.
Hunter: Wow. So if you are, if you’re a loan officer, you’re watching this right now, how do you go about getting certified to be a reverse mortgage specialist?
Nick: Well, you can go to The Landing, there you’ll see the Reverse One icon. You can email us, and you just have to show interest in the product and what we can do is set you up. We have courses that you can take. We’re always available to train people to understand this product. So you have, so all loan officers can have it in their toolboxes.
Hunter: Honest question, would you rather have people special, like would you rather refer, have people refer into the group, or would you rather have people get certified or both?
Nick: I think it really depends on the situation. What we allow for is all different options. So while forward mortgages weren’t as many as they’ve been since the last couple of years, so people want to focus and make sure that, that they utilize this product. When business picks up again, they probably want to refer it.
Hunter: Yeah.
Nick: So we’re willing to certify. But when the business turns around again, if that’s not your best course of action, we have the right people to make sure that, you know, your client’s take care of. We came up with a program that’s called the Assist Program.
Hunter: Okay.
Nick: So our loan officers can act as loan officer advisors. So if you’re, if you don’t understand the product…
Hunter: Meaning a reverse person currently can …
Nick: Yes.
Hunter: Okay.
Nick: So if you’re speaking to a client and you say, hey, you know, maybe this person might qualify for reverse. You can go to The Landing page, and I set up an artificial intelligence chatbot that I trained that’s been on there for two years. You can get the answers that you need to speak intelligently on the product. And then with a click of a button, you can put in about 5 or 6 points of information, and it will route you to an LOA.
Hunter: Wow.
Nick: And within minutes, you can have your client on the line on Teams, and an LOA there to speak on the product to help assist with the origination. And you’re the loan officer of record, even though you might not know reverse mortgages because that LOA is there for you that whole time.
Hunter: What are the loan amounts? I mean, like, is it, how high can you go on a reverse?
Nick: Actually, just last month we closed a $4 million deal on a $12 million home.
Hunter: Really? Okay.
Nick: Yeah, so usually the maximum loan amount is $4 million. There’s exceptions for some of our investors to go up to $5 million, but the average loan amount is about $220,000.
Hunter: Okay. Families involved or I mean, like when you’re talking to people like, like, what’s the average age of someone that’s getting a reverse mortgage?
Nick: It’s, it’s in the 70s.
Hunter: Okay.
Nick: Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s in the 70s. The product has many nuances. Years ago it was a need based product. That’s, that’s not the case anymore. This is a financial planning tool now. So like I said, whether you have a $12 million home or you need this because you’re on a fixed income and, you know, life is just expensive at this point. There’s all sides of the spectrum.
Hunter: I have to, I have to think talking to financial advisors is as important as talking to clients.
Nick: Definitely. Financial planners have really embraced the product where before they wouldn’t speak of it. Now they’ve embraced it, especially since COVID. A lot of people moving from state to another state, tapping into their 401K, training the balances and such, utilizing that as income. So the financial planners really came along. Actually most of our presentations are with the financial planners now.
Hunter: Okay. What do you think, as far as like what the future of reverse inside of CCM, what does that look like? Because I feel like it’s going …
Nick: This, this company allows for entrepreneurship at its best. I mean, it’s the reason why I came here.
Hunter: Okay.
Nick: So with that, you know, if you fix a problem for the masses, the masses shall reward you. There’s a problem. You know, everything, inflation, bankruptcy, divorce. It’s our demographic. And like, we were talking about $13.7 trillion held up, just stagnation.
Hunter: Yeah.
Nick: So a company like CCM allows someone like me and my staff to innovate and come up with new products and fix that problem.
Hunter: Yeah.
Nick: And use our decades of experience to come up with new products that will be the leader that, that will guide.
Hunter: Are we literally creating products?
Nick: We are, we will. We’re actually we’re rolling out our Legacy Advantage product. And, what we’re doing is we want to make sure that if a forward loan officer has a person that wants the American dream, a lot of times they’re getting additional down payment sourced gift funds from the parents or the grandparents.
Hunter: Sure.
Nick: A lot of times that comes from their retirement or it’s liquid capital that, that they might be nervous to spend at this point.
Hunter: Yep.
Nick: Also, a lot of times you need a cosigner.
Hunter: Yeah.
Nick: So what we want you to think about is that there’s another way. There’s a legacy product for if, if you’re going to have a down payment, you can utilize this additional product and then help the legacy to the kids.
Hunter: Yeah, I love it. So where do people go if they want to get certified?
Nick: So you go right to The Landing page. Find the Reverse One icon and there’s an assist form there, or you can email us at [email protected] and just say that you want to get certified.
We’ll reach out to you, give you the plan in order to get certified and whatever resources you need. We just want you to understand the product. And the marketability for this is amazing, so you should really look into it.
Hunter: I love it. Everyone, thank you for listening. Nick, I can tell you from experience, I’ve had questions in the past. I’ve been on calls with Nick. He’s incredibly helpful. His whole team is. So Nick, thank you so much for joining us today.
Nick: I appreciate it. Thank you.
Hunter: Thanks.
About the Guests
Nick Petrillo has been a mortgage pioneer for two decades, immersing himself in technological advances for one of the most specialized niches: reverse mortgages. As Divisional VP at CCM, he leads a team of industry veterans dedicated to revolutionizing how homeowners and advisors think about reverse lending. From launching proprietary products to building tools that support loan officers and clients alike, Nick is focused on turning home equity into a smarter, more strategic financial resource.
