The Conn.-based Norcom Mortgage’s former reverse mortgage team is joining Texas-based Supreme Lending following CMG Financial’s acquisition of Norcom’s retail division last month.
Supreme's new reverse mortgage team will be headed up by SVP of Reverse Lending John Luddy.
A 40-year veteran of the mortgage business, Luddy started his career at McCue Mortgage in New Britain, Conn., and spent the last decade at Norcom, located in Avon, Conn. He and Norcom's other reverse professionals elected not to move to CMG with the recent acquisition.
“Myself and my team went out to find what we hoped would be our forever home and we did,” Luddy told NMP this week. “We built a matrix of what was important to us and Supreme proved to be the right fit.”
When the team travelled to Texas to meet Supreme Lending SVP of National Sales Candice McNaught, it solidified their decision.
“Everyone was so enthusiastic, and Candice is brilliant,” Luddy said. “The team down there has just been so helpful, hardworking and smart. We really were very blessed to have found them.”
Dozens of lenders were vying for the opportunity to bring on Norcom’s former reverse team, which has built a strong footprint in the space.
“We respect the fact that John is an educator, an advisor, and a trainer,” McNaught said in a phone interview with NMP Tuesday. “This is someone that takes the reverse mortgage space very seriously. With his reputation in the industry and his time at Norcom he is the right person to bring reverse mortgages into our company.”
While Supreme has brokered out reverse loans historically, this move allows the company to enter an increasingly-competitive arena.
“The opportunity came up for us to add a new vertical or channel to Supreme,” McNaught said. "This completes the bookend for Supreme Lending. Now we have a product channel for every homebuyer and homeowner.”
Having specialized in reverse mortgages for over 20 years, Luddy plans to continue nurturing the relationships he's built while expanding Supreme's reverse footprint nationally. The team will be based out of the company's Manchester, Conn. office.
“Attitudes have changed about reverse mortgages, and I think visiting with my own clients and their families keeps me relevant.”
He’s planning to educate existing team members, while growing the division into the future.
“It’s an opportunity for the people who are already at Supreme to learn reverse mortgage,” Luddy said. “I love training so we’re going to spend a lot of time helping them understand a product that might be considered very complicated, but boiling it down so it’s understandable.”
