Reverse Mortgage News

The Detroit Area deserves some recognition for the work that it has done in raising awareness about reverse mortgage issues as well as many other home issues affecting residents of the area. What’s interesting is that it doesn’t seem that the companies working in Detroit intentionally came together to help spread this important education. Instead, individual mortgage companies and others in the industry are hosting their own seminars and events to spread awareness. Obviously, people in the Detroit housing market community saw a need for this kind of basic real estate education and decided to fill this need by taking matters into their own hands instead of waiting for an organized approach by city government.

One of the groups doing this kind of education is the Colonial Mortgage Corp. which is located in the Detroit suburb of Livonia, MI. This place holds a reverse mortgage seminar every single week (on Tuesdays at 6 p.m.). This free seminar provides important information about the issue of reverse mortgages to seniors and other interested parties living in the area. In addition to reverse mortgages, other housing market issues being regularly discussed in the Detroit area through similar seminars include home foreclosure, single woman home buying and real estate investment. You can learn more from The Detroit Free Press home calendar and we can all learn a little something from Detroit.

Did you know that it’s National Aging in Place Week? This is an important week for people who are interested in reverse mortgages because of the direct impact that reverse mortgage loans have on allowing seniors to continue living in their homes as they age. The purpose of National Aging in Place Week is to raise awareness about the difficulties that seniors face in maintaining their homes as they get older and to collaborate on ways to ease that process. A number of different types of people come together during this week in this collaboration including geriatric and home care workers, home-modification workers and of course people who assist with the financial aspects of staying at home in your older years. Reverse mortgages can assist older people in financing the improvements to the home that are necessary to making the home livable and comfortable as they age. Make it a point to pay attention to the news in this area during this week when new collaborative ideas should be emerging.

If you’re going to get a reverse mortgage, you’re going to have to go through some financial counseling. There are a number of different reasons for this and they really are all in your best interest so don’t grumble about it, just figure out where you’re going to go to get it. You have a wide range of options as to where you can get your reverse mortgage counseling, ranging from through a personal financial counselor to working with a large agency. One of the most popular choices for reverse mortgage counseling is through the AARP.

The AARP has established a reverse mortgage counseling program which is designed to quickly and easily give you all of the information that you are going to need to know in order to obtain your reverse mortgage loan. Without adding on a bunch of unnecessary education, the AARP program will answer all of your questions and work with you to make sure that the loan is in your best interest. Their counselors are trained specifically to assist you in understanding the implications of getting a reverse mortgage loan and what responsibilities you’ll have to make sure that it works for you.

According to a news report by Lubbock Online, there are five important questions that you should make sure to ask before you agree to work with your reverse mortgage lender.

These five reverse mortgage lender questions are:

What is your personal history in working as a reverse mortgage lender? (Length of time doing so, success, full or part time, etc.)
What is your NRMLA membership status?
What kinds of reverse mortgages and HECM options do you offer?
What is this actually going to cost me? (Ask for an itemized list to assist you in understanding what it will cost and what your payment schedule is going to be.)
What is your process for making sure that I get the best loan for my unique situation?

Ultimately, it is best that you go with your gut instinct about your reverse mortgage lender. If you get the feeling that he or she is going to scam you, then it doesn’t matter how good their track record is. Conversely, you might be willing to work with a reverse mortgage lender who is new to the field if you get a good feeling from the interaction. Nevertheless, asking these five questions is a good start to assisting you in making a decision about whether or not to work with a particular reverse mortgage lender.

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Reverse Mortgage Daily recently ran a post which pointed to a study done by ERA real estate about which celebrity they’d prefer to get real estate advice from. The baby boomer generation who voted in the study said that they’d be more likely to get real estate advice from Oprah Winfrey than from Donald Trump. This is interesting since Trump is more likely to have direct knowledge about real estate investment. However, it makes sense. Seniors really want to get the personal touch when obtaining advice about their homes. If you were looking to get information about reverse mortgages, you’d want to get it from someone that you really felt like you could trust. Because of her personality and the way that she has presented herself over the years, Oprah is simply a more trustworthy figure in terms of comfort than Donald Trump could ever be. Of course, you should probably find someone trained in reverse mortgages to be giving you advice but when you’re looking for a lender, think about the star qualities that you might want to see in them.

A recent article warns that you should think twice before taking out a reverse mortgage. There are two major reasons cited in the article for this warning. The first is that many people apparently don’t realize the importance of continuing to pay property taxes on time. The article warns that failure to pay property taxes in a timely manner can result in the loss of your home. The reality is that this may be true but that failing to pay property taxes poses risks whether or not you’ve taken out a reverse mortgage loan. The simple fix here is to pay your bills on time, something that the reverse mortgage can actually assist you in doing since it serves as an additional source of income.

The other warning about reverse mortgages offered by the article is that the rates and fees of a reverse mortgage may be higher than those of a conventional loan. True enough, but that’s why it pays to shop around and consider all of your options before taking out a reverse mortgage loan. No one is suggesting that you just leap into a reverse mortgage loan without checking out if it’s right for your particular situation. You may even consider working with a financial planner to make the right decision. But the warnings away from reverse mortgages seem unfounded when looking at the big picture.

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A recent MSNBC report looked at all of the different factors that go into the perfect retirement plan and found that the reverse mortgage may very well be one part of that plan. There were eight basic steps to this retirement planning including saving in advance, working part-time in retirement and properly investing your funds. One of these steps was factoring in the “lump sum” payments that you might get from different areas of your life, one of which was the possible reverse mortgage loan. This makes the important point that you shouldn’t count on your reverse mortgage to be your sole provision of financial security during your retirement. However, it may be one crucial part of the overall plan that you develop to assist you in having peace of mind about your money as you grow older.

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There has been a significant amount of bad publicity about reverse mortgage loans in recent years. The biggest negative argument is that lenders are preying upon the lack of knowledge and the fear of financial insecurity that prevails amongst older Americans to convince them to get reverse mortgage loans which they don’t need. The Age recently reported on this issue, noting that many lenders and brokers engage in predatory practices such as convincing older Americans to get more money than they actually need out of reverse mortgages, putting them into what is perceived as unnecessary debt. Another problem pointed out is that many people don't understand the risks in the clauses of their reverse mortgage loans.

Unfortunately, it’s true that there are lenders out there who are going to offer you bad reverse mortgage deals. However, the reverse mortgage itself is not a bad idea. For this reason, it’s important that you reduce your ignorance about the situation before agreeing to the reverse mortgage loan. Knowledge is not only power, it can also be money. Educate yourself completely about the ins and outs of reverse mortgage loans so that you can get the deal you want without the problems that plague this industry.

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Reverse mortgage loans tend to be an American thing but it seems that the Canadians are getting on board with the trend. A recent MSN Finance article which talks about the options for accessing home equity points out:

“Until recently, the Canadian Home Income Plan, or CHIP, was the only game in town with about $655 million in outstanding mortgages. However, Seniors Money Canada, backed by a New Zealand company that already operates in five other countries, opened its doors last month.”

This increase in vendors of reverse mortgages shows an increase of interest in reverse mortgage loans up in Canada. However, the article does point out that this growth of interest is happening slowly. Many people still fear that reverse mortgages can lead to the loss of their homes and opt instead for one of the other alternatives for accessing home equity. When planning your financial future, you might want to remember that there are a lot of different options and reverse mortgages are one of them - both in America and elsewhere!

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Money is a very serious thing. It’s also something that most of us don’t entirely understand and aren’t really perfect at dealing with. As we get older, things get even more confusing. We try to figure out what our options are for accessing additional income, developing financial stability that will carry us through the retirement years and yet not compromising the lifetime of acquisitions which we would love to leave to our children. One of the many money choices we might consider is the option for accessing income through reverse mortgages. But making this decision is a difficult one and so many of us find that we need to turn to advice from others before finalizing our choices in this area.

Who do you turn to for reverse mortgage advice? Most married couples turn to each other first and foremost. Many older folks ask for advice from their grown children since the home being mortgaged may or may not eventually go to them. Others seek reverse mortgage advice from their friends and other community members. And still others turn to financial planners for assistance in making professional decisions about the pros and cons of reverse mortgages. Some people even turn towards celebrity advice! What do you think is the best place for getting reverse mortgage advice?

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There is an important warning about reverse mortgage lead scams which is being spread around the Internet. While this warning is primarily for those people who are in the business of reverse mortgage lending, it’s also important for consumers to know that this kind of stuff is going on. Consumers should always be aware of the ways in which technology is being used to create scams so that they can assist in derailing these scams. Reverse mortgage lead scams harm both the lenders and the consumers.

Let’s get down to the basics … if you don’t know anything about lead generation, we should probably start there. Basically, there are companies who provide “good leads” to people in various industries using information gained online and through consumer surveys. If you take a survey and you indicate that you might be interested in learning more about reverse mortgages, then you could get on a list of leads for that purpose. That list is given to purchasing lenders who are interested in getting leads on people who might want their product. When it is all done legitimately, reverse mortgage leads are a great thing. They help connect people seeking information with the people who want that information.

However, sometimes lead generation is done illegitimately. Leads are collected through spyware programs and other such means and your name can end up on a list when you don’t even want it to. Problems like these cause problems for everyone in the industry. Seniors who don’t want to be contacted about reverse mortgages are angered when their names turn up on these lists. Mortgage lenders looking for legitimate leads are angered when they upset people who aren’t interested because they got their name off of a bad list.

You can see the warning about one specific reverse mortgage leads scam here. Keep yourself aware of this kind of news to help prevent problems like these for everyone!

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A recent article in the Journal of Business took a hard look at the difficulties of the ‘transition time’ for seniors. This time refers to the period five years preceding and five years following retirement. It makes sense that this would be a difficult time for seniors in many different ways. After all, all transition periods come with a little bit of stress and when you’re talking about retirement, you’re talking about money which makes the situation even more prone to being stressful. The articles provides a close look at the ways that seniors can organize their finances in order to ease the stress of this transition time.

One of the things that is mentioned as an option is the reverse mortgage for senior transitions. The reverse mortgage is one method of accessing home equity which can help to provide an ongoing source of income to the senior after retirement. As such, it is one component of an organized budgeting and finance plan that can be considered during these transition years. It also helps to answer a question that plagues many seniors during the transition time – “where will I live out the rest of my life?” Because homes are expensive, many seniors think about downsizing during this transition but don’t’ necessarily want to; the reverse mortgage can be one solution. And any solutions reached during the transition time can help reduce the stress of this period of change.

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The reason that most seniors take out a reverse mortgage loan is because they want to access cash to assist them in funding their lives. Generally, the situation is that they simply don’t have enough money to continue living in their homes and paying their bills. So they take out a reverse home mortgage in order to be able to have a steady stream of income which will allow them to continue living in their homes. However, some seniors who are looking at the reverse mortgage as an option aren’t actually in dire need of money. A recent Pittsburgh Post Gazette article takes a look at affluent seniors who are actually using the reverse mortgage for investment purposes.

Although this isn’t common, the article reports that reverse mortgage for investment is being done. It reports specifically on the case of a 64-year-old man who owned a mansion worth over $20 million … and he chose to access reverse mortgage loans in order to obtain additional money for the purpose of investment. At 64, you could still have a lot of years of life ahead of you so investments could be made which would assist you for many years to come. If you have the means to access money in this manner, investing it could be a wise choice (assuming that you know what you’re doing with investments).

What do you think? Are reverse mortgages for senior investment a wise idea or a poor decision?

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There are a number of different problems plaguing the traditional home mortgage right now. The sub-prime housing market problems, the general iffy status of the economy and other real estate issues are causing problems across the board when it comes to various housing loans. However, these problems might not be affecting reverse mortgages in the same way that they are affecting other kinds of home loans.

“Senior adults looking forward to a reverse mortgage to secure their retirement are finding that reverse mortgages are unaffected by the troubles now plaguing traditional mortgages,” according to the San Diego Source. San Diego is a particularly important place to pay attention to reverse mortgage news because its coastal location and great weather make it a place loved by retirees. So if San Diego is saying that reverse mortgages are safe during this housing slump, we should be keeping our ears open.

However, it isn’t just San Diego that seems to indicate that reverse mortgage loans aren’t in as much trouble as other loans. A Maryland paper reporting on the fact that many banks are suffering because of the housing slump noted specifically that banks having trouble in specific areas of mortgage lending, such as wholesale mortgage lending, are still seeing strong growth in the area of reverse mortgage lending.

What do you see as the differences in reverse mortgage lending as compared with other housing loans that make reverse mortgage lending continue to thrive during this iffy real estate time?

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Many people who are interested in reverse home mortgage loans continue to face a significant amount of difficulty in understanding how those loans work. That’s because there are many different facets to consider when taking out reverse home mortgage loans, and many of those are personal factors that relate specifically to the borrowers own financial status. Most people who want to get information about reverse mortgages find that they can’t always figure out where to turn to get their questions answered. A new website that has just been launched might be place to turn.

The website is CityReverseMortgage. It launched just last week and serves the sole purpose of providing reverse mortgage consultation to those who need assistance understanding and acquiring reverse mortgage loan information. Through the use of reverse mortgage lender experts, the site provides free consultation to people interested in applying for reverse mortgage loans and other home equity conversion loans. Read that sentence again; this online reverse mortgage consultation is free! The press release about the site’s launch is specific to Florida reverse mortgage loans but the information is applicable to borrowers all throughout the nation.

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Money is always complicated. It’s hard enough to understand your tax forms every year. It’s even more difficult when you’ve retired and have to start all over again learning the new rules that are in place for your change in income. You may have a pension, your reverse home mortgage loan and other monetary factors that you hadn’t had to work out with your annual tax return in the past. It’s difficult, but this difficulty doesn’t give you a pass. You are required to learn about these details, including the importance of declaring reverse home mortgage loan income on your taxes.

A news report last week from the Detroit News brings this issue to the spotlight. The report is about all of the tax breaks that were given to people in the area who should not have received those tax breaks. It’s not just those with reverse home mortgages that are attacked in the article. In fact, the article is mostly geared towards exposing wealthy people who are intentionally (and inappropriately) taking advantage of tax breaks. But the articles does mention that reverse home mortgages were received by 70 citizens who were investigated for tax break abuse due to failure to report that income in their taxes.

Your reverse mortgage loan is supposed to make life easier for you. Don’t let it do the opposite by getting you into trouble with the IRS. If you aren’t sure how to include your reverse mortgage loan information in your tax return, you need to find out. Work with a tax planning professional or a reverse mortgage specialist with knowledge in tax filing to make sure that you don’t get yourself into hot water.

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There’s a lot of huff-and-puff about the decline of home values in the real estate market today. However, a news report from Senior Journal indicates that the value of some homes is on the rise. More specifically, the report says that the value of homes owned by seniors who would be able to qualify for a reverse mortgage loan has increased. The increase is only slight but it shows a positive trend in the real estate market for the niche group of people who are also in the reverse mortgage market.

This doesn’t spell out entirely good news. The report goes on to say that home equity for this same group declined. This decline was due to an increased existing mortgage debt by these people. In other words, people who qualify to get a reverse mortgage loan also currently have outstanding mortgages that are higher in price than those held by people in the same position a year ago. This could point to the importance of the reverse home mortgage.

Part of what the reverse home mortgage does is that it pays off your existing mortgage debt. If seniors today have more mortgage debt than seniors in the past, this could be a need in the community that the reverse mortgage can fill. Additionally, it should be noted that the increase in home value was greater than the decrease in home equity value. Overall, the changes were slight but this may indicate a coming trend to keep an eye on. If you're interested in this area of development, consider discussing asset management and the reverse home mortgage trend with a professional.

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People have many questions about the reverse mortgage for senior income. They want to know how it works, what it all means and what steps must be taken to apply for the reverse home mortgage. But when it all boils down to the gist of the inquiry, what most people want to know first and foremost is what the basic requirements are for qualifying for a reverse mortgage.

You want to be able to move on to the additional questions that you might have so here is the basic information that you’ll need to know about senior reverse mortgage qualification requirements:

Age: Age is the most important factor which will determine whether or not you (or the senior that you’re concerned about) qualifies for a reverse home mortgage. The minimum age requirement is 62.

Credit History: There are typically no credit requirements for obtaining a reverse home mortgage. However, if you have a bankruptcy claim pending, there may be delays in your ability to qualify for a reverse home mortgage.

Income: The point of the reverse home mortgage is to provide you with additional money when your income is not sufficient to meet your needs. For this reason, it makes sense that there is no minimum income required to obtain a reverse home mortgage loan.

Purpose of funding: You do not have to disclose a specific purpose for the funds that you’ll be obtaining through your reverse home mortgage loan. You will, however, have to use the funds at the start to pay off any part of the mortgage which wasn’t already paid. The rest is free for you to do with as you wish, including investing for future gains if you so desire.

Education: No, you don’t have to have a certain college degree to qualify for a reverse mortgage. However, you will need to take a class that gives you some basic information about reverse home mortgages. The reverse home mortgage class is free and may be taken anywhere that it’s offered. Many seniors go with the AARP counseling that is offered.

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There are many different people who can assist you with obtaining reverse mortgage information. However, a financial planner may offer some benefits to you that other options don’t provide. A financial planner can assist you not only in understanding your reverse mortgage and working to obtain it; he / she can also assist you in budgeting the money that you’ll receive from your reverse mortgage so that you can make the most out of your loan. Since you are going to be using that money to supplement your income for what might be the rest of your life, it’s important to have a plan for what you’re going to do with the money. A financial planner makes this easy.

You can begin working with a financial planner at any stage of your reverse mortgage loan. Before the application process even begins, a financial planner can provide you with a realistic look at whether or not a reverse mortgage loan is right for you. But even if you’ve already got the loan, a financial planner can be useful. You may be having trouble figuring out how much to spend and whether or not to save portions of the reverse home mortgage loan money that you are getting. A financial planner can break down the details for you, help you set up a budget and financial goals and show you where your money will be going over the course of upcoming years.

The work that a financial planner can do for you will improve your understanding of your reverse mortgage loan over the long term. This is important because it offers you peace of mind about your money. Obtaining that peace of mind and financial stability is really what getting a reverse mortgage loan is all about!

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Many people get their reverse mortgage information online. One of the most common ways of doing this is by accessing a reverse mortgage calculator. These are available on a number of different websites, both those websites which provide legitimate reverse mortgage information and those which don’t. The way that they work is that you input some basic information into the online form and the reverse mortgage calculator produces an approximate value for the amount of money that you may be able to receive from a reverse mortgage loan.

Is this a good way to get reverse mortgage information? Yes and no. The reverse mortgage calculator will give you an approximate amount of the money that you may receive from a reverse home mortgage loan. You should note that this is not the actual amount of the loan that you will receive. If you are looking for exact information or are ready to apply for your loan, you are going to need to work with a reverse mortgage lender. This person will look at specific details of your financial situation which are not included in the calculations of the online reverse home mortgage calculator. They will provide you with an accurate report of the money you should receive from the loan. However, if you’re just trying to get a ballpark figure to see if a reverse home mortgage is feasible for you, the online reverse home mortgage calculator can be useful.

You should be aware that some websites provide a reverse home mortgage calculator solely to get information from you about your interest in a home mortgage loan. Be wary of any reverse mortgage calculator that asks for specific contact information such as your email address or phone number. And avoid any reverse mortgage calculator that asks for your social security number. Use only those which provide you an online response without this identifying information. And remember to work with a professional to get more exact numbers for your reverse mortgage loan.

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There are at least two sides to every story. Many negative news articles are painting the picture that the reverse home mortgage is for desperate seniors who have no other way to keep their homes than to access a line of credit through their home. However, there’s a flipside to the reverse home mortgage that paints reverse mortgage borrowers in a much better light.

Take a look at the profile of one borrower couple that was printed last week by the Columbia Tribune. This couple moved from California to a new home in Columbia and wanted to boost the quality of their lives with the move. They're only in their sixties and have plenty of vim and vigor left to be enjoying life after retirement. They wanted to do so by traveling and making comfort-enhancing improvements to their new home.

The way that they decided to finance this improvement in their quality of life was to make use of the reverse home mortgage. Sure, they could have lived off of social security income and been able to afford their home. But they wouldn’t have had the extra money for improvements and worldwide activities. Now they can get out and about using the money from their reverse mortgage loan and they can return home to a house they truly love.

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Whenever you start to learn about a new topic that is of interest to you, you have to learn a new vocabulary. Sure, you’re still speaking English but the different terms that are used in different industries require a little bit of education. This is definitely true when you’re talking about the world of mortgages. Although you may have a basic idea about what different mortgage options are available to you, you probably don’t know the nuanced differences between each of your available options. A mortgage professional can assist you in learning this language.

You can get started with learning the language on your own though by studying about mortgages. There’s a vocabulary list with definitions of different types of mortgages over at The News Leader which makes a great starting place for learning how to talk about real estate money. One of the entries that you’ll want to pay particular attention to is this one:

“Home equity line of credit (HELOC): A type of revolving loan that enables a homeowner to obtain multiple advances of the loan proceeds at his or her own discretion up to an amount that represents a specific percentage of the borrower's equity in the property.”

The reason that you’re interested in the “home equity line of credit” definition is because this is the same thing as the reverse home mortgage. If you didn’t already know that, then you just started learning the mortgage language. The more fluent you become in this language, the more capable you are going to be in having conversations about your reverse mortgage options.

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Perhaps you’ve seen the option available online to use a reverse mortgage calculator to try and figure out what kind of income you could access if you were to apply and obtain a reverse mortgage home loan. But you haven’t yet checked out the information that a reverse mortgage calculator can provide to you. What’s holding you back? Many people are afraid of using an online reverse mortgage calculator because they don’t know if it’s a legitimate way of finding out whether or not the loan is right for them.

Here are some tips for using a reverse mortgage calculator to get the information you are seeking:

o Go to a reputable source for using a reverse mortgage calculator. You don’t want to go with a lender who is just going to try and get you to use them for a loan. You want to go to an informative website instead. The most popular choice is the reverse mortgage calculator on the AARP website.

o Input information as accurately as you can to get the best results. Many people just guess what the numbers are and then get inaccurate results. Take the time to look up your paperwork to get a good answer.

o Use the information as a starting point. If the reverse mortgage calculator makes it look like you could benefit from this loan, contact a financial planner or lending specialist to go over the details. You shouldn’t take the information as complete information but rather as a place to start when considering a loan.

A reverse mortgage calculator is easy to use and shouldn’t pose any problems to the average Internet user. If you experience any concern while using the calculator, you should stop and work with a professional instead.

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