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Business
as an opportunity to help
By NADIA MARIA SMITH
CS&T Staff Writer
Normally, when homeowners talk about their mortgage holders, they don’t
say those companies are an answer to their prayers. But Walter Gephart
hears that sort of praise regularly.
“It’s a wonderful thing,” said Gephart, who opened his
own mortgage company eight years ago at age 50 — switching careers
to accommodate another wonderful gift in his own life.
In their middle-age, he and his wife, Marsha, adopted a special-needs
infant daughter, Mikayla, through Catholic Social Services of the Archdiocese
of Philadelphia.
“The decision to adopt was a decision we made after a lot of prayer
and many conversations with our pastor,” said Gephart, who grew
up in St. Leo Parish in Philadelphia and now belongs to the Church of
the Resurrection Parish in Marmora, N.J. “I truly believe that it
was something God was asking us to do …” he said, “It
changed our lives tremendously.”
After deciding to take on the care of a blind baby daughter, the Gepharts
went on to make other major changes in their life.
Marsha Gephart, a successful real estate agent, quit her job to stay home
with 6-month-old Mikayla.
Gephart also took stock of his career: “I had a job with a big corporation,
which required a lot of time away from home [and] I felt I needed to make
some changes in that area so I could be around to help raise my daughter.”
Searching for work where he could “do some good,” Gephart
said, he “saw an opportunity to get involved in this reverse mortgage
world, and help seniors who are struggling.”
Reverse mortgages do not require a monthly repayment. Available through
a federal program, they allow home owners 62 years old or older to “borrow”
part of their home equity without having to repay that money for as long
as they live in their own homes.
“There are thousands of seniors out there who are barely surviving,”
Gephart said. With reverse mortgages, they obtain “tax free money
that they can use to supplement the very little income they’re getting
from the government.”
His company, also based in Marmora, helps senior citizens throughout New
Jersey and the Pennsylvania region find a more financially secure retirement.
Ivy League Mortgage also specializes in first-time home buyers. In that
role, Gephart, a graduate of Father Judge High School for Boys, also acts
on his Catholic faith to conduct business.
“Young people are sometimes very confused on … what they
can really afford,” he said. “There are, unfortunately, lenders
out there who have been putting these young couples into houses that they
can’t afford — giving them mortgages that they don’t
qualify for — and then they get in over their heads.”
At his company, first-time home buyers are treated “like they are
our own children,” Gephart said.
“We believe the [approach] that we use in working with seniors,
which is careful, slow, and methodical in making sure that they fully
understand all the parameters [of taking out a reverse mortgage] is also
an asset in dealing with a first-time home buyer …,” he said.
“We never try to talk someone into something that isn’t right
for them.”
Meanwhile, Gephart’s business has become a family affair.
Mikayla now attends school, so Marsha Gephart works alongside her husband
as office manager and loan processor — something both knew
would work well, since they met on the job 21 years ago.
And Mikayla’s school is just three minutes away, so she has her
own little desk at the office.
For Gephart, life is not as financially successful as it was before he
and his wife made so many changes. But it is richer than he ever could
have imagined.
“Just the joy of having Mikayla around is worth everything,”
he said. “And of course, I love what I do and don’t want to
do anything else. … It’s not all about money believe me.”
CS&T staff writer Nadia Maria Smith can be reached at npozo@adphila.org
or (215) 965-4614.