A Reverse Mortgage or Reverse Home Mortgage is a great financial product for seniors to use in their retirement plan.
When looking for ways to get cash from their home, most people consider selling their house or borrowing against their home equity and making monthly loan repayments on a home equity loan.
With a Reverse Home Mortgage, you get all the benefits of selling your house and all the benefits of getting a home equity loan - but you can still live in and retain ownership of your home and you don’t have to make any payments against the loan over time. No matter how you structure a Reverse Mortgage, you typically don't pay anything back until you die, sell your home, or permanently move out. On top of that, your ability to secure a Reverse Mortgage is not dependent on your credit history, income level, health or any other factors that might make a home equity loan expensive or problematic.
By converting your home equity into income, a Reverse Mortgage can be a way to stay in your home and get cash to use for any purpose. There are no restrictions on how you can use the money from a Reverse Mortgage.
So, what is the catch? To many, a Reverse Home Mortgage sounds too good to be true. Traditionally, the big disadvantages of a Reverse Mortgage are the relatively high closing costs. In addition, lending limits and the calculations used to determine how much money you are eligible for may mean that you cannot get as much money from a reverse mortgage as you might from a normal mortgage. Nevertheless, if you need or want money for any purpose, and are concerned about not being able to make the payments on a normal loan, then a reverse mortgage may be right for you.
To be eligible for most Reverse Mortgages, you must own and reside in your home and be a senior 62 years of age or older. (In most cases second homes, apartment buildings and homes less than a year old are not eligible for a reverse mortgage.)
