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 pay back the loan. 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. And, 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 is a way to stay in your home and get cash to use for any purpose. There are no restrictions on how you can use 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 were the high closing costs. However, new legislation is lowering those costs – making a Reverse Mortgage even more interesting to seniors. The even better news is that the lending limits are also increasing – meaning that you can access more capital from your equity than before.
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.)