Gaining equity: Reverse mortgage lender heads mortgage bankers chapter

Nathan Guerrero
Nathan Guerrero

The head of the Mortgage Bankers Association's Chattanooga chapter is different from most of the home lenders in the local trade group.

Nathan Guerrero, president Mortgage South and the 2019 chapter president of the Chattanooga Mortgage Bankers Association, focuses entirely on reverse mortgages made to home owners, rather than the mortgage lending done for home buyers by most of his mortgage lending peers.

But Guerrero, a 40-year-old Chickamauga native who has specialized in reverse home loans and financial planning through his career at Wells Fargo and Mortgage South, still sees great value in the networking and contacts with others in the mortgage lending business.

"We're trying to serve all of our customers by being able to direct them to someone else if they have another type of financial need," he says.

Having such contacts can aid both lenders and borrowers, Guerrero says. The local mortgage bankers chapter, part of the Tennessee Mortgage Bankers Association, conducts quarterly luncheons that regularly draw about 50 mortgage lenders and affiliate members.

Guerrero developed an interest in reverse mortgages through his work in helping the financial planning of individual investors. Reverse home loans, which may have once been used as a loan of last resort, are now sometimes a key part of a financial plan in retirement to help seniors recoup the value of their home while still staying in their house. Reverse mortgages are available to those age 62 and older and the Reverse Mortgage Stabilization Act of 2013 helped set guidelines that limit the risks for those using such government-guaranteed loans.

Guerrero says he regularly consults with financial planners and elder law attorneys to help his clients keep their finances stable throughout retirement. Mortgage South was the first lender to do a reverse loan in Tennessee in 1993. Guerrero took over as president of the company from , Don Oakes, who is branch manager of Highlands Residential Mortgage Ltd.

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