Reverse Mortgages

On 9/14/2014 patbz said: Be very careful, if you have a financial advisor or banker ask him or her. The interest is very high and house must be sold when last owner of record leaves for a particular period of time. If you have enough equity to consider this maybe you could sell and move into a more cost effective rental, (for instance).

Yes, I agree.

Thank you.

Mine was a big mistake, but it was my own fault. And it happened right before the crash. So I lost $80,000 in actual hard cash (not on paper). Worst financial mistake of my life.

There are many aspects of this to be considered. My DH and I feel this will be an alternative for us if we need to one day - we never know how inflation may affect what we consider to be an adequate amount of savings. If I were considering doing this I would not do it without getting an attorney to look it over first - and I would definitely look at many different financial institutions to see how they differ in their terms.

We bought our home for cash at a very reasonable price in 2010 - it is a home that we can stay in until we need to go into some kind of supervised living situation, so I would not want to have to sell, esp. since we have long term care insurance that will cover the cost of in home care should we need it.

From what I have heard - and seniors discuss this stuff a lot - there are many reverse mortgage institutions that are really excellent and there are just as many that are scammers. That is why you need an attorney to go over it for you.

A reputable and honest financial advisor will tell you not to get a reverse mortgage. There are a lot of potential down sides. It's even an issue when a person wants to buy securities products (i.e.: mutual funds, variable annuities, and such).

On 9/14/2014 CalmInTheHeart said:

A reputable and honest financial advisor will tell you not to get a reverse mortgage. There are a lot of potential down sides. It's even an issue when a person wants to buy securities products (i.e.: mutual funds, variable annuities, and such).

WHAT? What does a reverse mortgage have to do with buying mutual funds?

Suze Orman has some info. about the risks & rewards on her site that may help. We don't have a reverse mortgage & don't know anyone that does so don't know much about them. http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2011/0309/Suze-Orman-Know-the-risks-rewards-of-reverse-mortgages

Her info. sends you to Hud.gov site but the link did not work. Here is the link to it. There is a link here to find lenders by state & counselors for reverse mortgages.

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/housing/sfh/hecm/hecmhome

She also has a calculator at the 1st link at the bottom of the article to see how much you would receive, interest etc.

I have watched the commercials with interest. I feel there are too many loopholes for me to even ever consider when it comes down to the fine print and signing on the dotted line.