Reverse Mortgage Specialist

I busted my rear while working there because, while I was aware that everyone knew how I got the job, I didn’t want them to think that my father was the reason I kept it. In those days, if I made a loan that went bad, I was the one who had to collect it.

So let’s just say that Bruce Simmons got to know his customers really well because he made a lot of monthly house calls to collect payments. Actually, it was outstanding training to teach me about customer service. Since our rates were so high, the only thing we had to offer was customer service.

From 1987 to 1997, I worked in the consumer finance business in three different states. In 1997 I moved back to Colorado with my wife and two young sons. I was the manager of a finance company in Aurora, Colorado and my assistant manager was leaving to take a job at a mortgage company that was based out of Florida but had a branch in Denver.

That mortgage company recruited me to open and manage a mortgage office in Westminster, Colorado in October 1997. Things went great for the next year. I won a company paid trip to Hawaii and was doing good. But in 1999 business fell off dramatically and they closed all their offices in Colorado.

I had been thinking that I wanted to own my own business for a long time and thought this was the perfect opportunity. So I started my own mortgage company – Anchor Mortgage & Investments. I threw the “investments” in the name because I thought it sounded more important. Never mind the fact that I ran the business out of my basement. 😉

A few years later, one of my customers who was in his 70’s called and asked me what I knew about reverse mortgages. I knew absolutely nothing about reverse mortgage loans, but since I was a “professional mortgage person”, I had to say something. So I told him that I think they take the title to the house and that when you die, they take the house. I told him that he’d better be careful and should get an attorney and it would all be very expensive.

About six months later, January 2003, I was building a web-site for my mortgage business when I stumbled onto “reverse mortgages” as a popular keyword (meaning that there were a lot of searches for it but not many web-sites). I started doing some research on reverse mortgages and discovered what a buffoon I had been in giving advise on a subject that I knew nothing about.

Of course I called my customer back and luckily, he had ignored my advise and went ahead and took out a reverse mortgage.

So the discovery of reverse mortgage loans changed my career path. I tried to broker a few reverse mortgages on my own, but really didn’t know what I was doing so in October of 2003, I signed on with a very large national lender and stayed with them until February of 2011 when I signed on with another big national lender.

In September of 2011, I heard about a local mortgage company called American Liberty Mortgage that has a great reputation and has been in business since 2003. The owner wanted to start a reverse mortgage division and wanted someone with experience to run it.

I really liked the idea of getting away from the big corporate companies and working for a local company with a great owner and super nice employees, so I jumped at the chance and am loving working there.

I absolutely love what I do – working with senior homeowners to help them live a more comfortable, flexible and secure retirement. I have the absolute best customers in the world, and even though I worked in the forward mortgage business for a number of years, I could never go back to doing conventional loans. I’m a 100% reverse mortgage specialist.

I think I’ve been successful in this business because I don’t have to “sell” people on reverse mortgages. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bad mouthing sales people, I actually think of myself as a sales person, but I sell by educating people about reverse mortgages. I am extremely low pressure. I do not ever want to talk someone into getting a reverse mortgage. That’s not who Bruce Simmons is.

Reverse mortgages can be a scary topic for some people and they need to understand it over time and at their own pace. That’s one of the reasons I developed this site, so people can learn about reverse mortgages on their schedule, not mine.

One of the ways I teach people about reverse mortgages is through the reverse mortgage specialists blog. For year I sent it through the mail, but now you have the option of receiving it by mail or through your e-mail. If you’d like to receive it by regular postal mail, please contact me with your address and I will gladly add you.

I guess I should also mention some personal things about Bruce Simmons as well.

I have been married to my high school sweetheart since 1989. We didn’t go to the same high school, but we worked together at Red Lobster in Englewood (I think it’s Centennial now). She was a hostess and I was a bus boy. How romantic.

We have two wonderful sons. Unfortunately, both moved out of state in 2018. One is a crime reporter in Boise, Idaho and the other followed his girlfriend up to Bismarck, North Dakota. Our 13 year old dog passed away as well in 2018 so we’re left with a mean old calico cat. We’ll be getting a puppy sometime in 2019, hopefully the cat doesn’t eat it. (She can be very mean). I was very involved with Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts for about twelve years while my oldest son was earning his Eagle Scout rank. I was his Cubmaster in Cub Scouts and his ScoutMaster is Boy Scouts, so needless to say, we love to hike and camp.

I also love to garden. I can’t wait for spring every year. I love it when the daffodils and tulips start poking their heads out of the ground. I really love to grow vegetables though. Of course I grow tomatoes, lettuce and peppers, but my favorites are garlic, potatoes and most of all, giant pumpkins.

I’m like Linus dreaming about the Great Pumpkin, only I want to grow it. Unfortunately, like Linus, my hopes are always much greater than my reality. I get some big ones, 200 – 250 pounds, but not the 1,000-2,000+ pound ones that you read about in the paper.