Reverse Mortgage Guide

When last we wrote about Circle Lending in June, we were greatly pleased by the fact that they offered reverse mortgages, had an online reverse mortgage calculator that produced an amortization statement and had the lowest fee structure we’ve seen.

The catch was that Circle Lending made arrangements between family and friends, helping those with money assist those without.

Circle Lending has now been re-born as Virgin Money, a company affiliated with Richard Branson.

Whether it’s Circle Lending or Virgin Money, this is one of the most innovative lenders out there.

Virgin offers a reverse mortgage product that’s far cheaper than any alternative I’ve seen to date — $2,499 to set up the program plus $9 per payment (not $30 or $35 like other lenders, and thousands of dollars less up-front).

To its immense good credit, Virgin keeps its reverse mortgage calculator online.

The Virgin program is not for everyone (because you need your own source of capital), but if Virgin can post an online calculator and publish an amortization statement, why not other lenders?

The Virgin calculator estimates future home values, outstanding balances and also the equity percentage of the home’s value represented by the loan. In other words, borrowers can clearly see what they may owe.

This is great stuff — good luck to Sir Richard and here’s hoping that the concepts at Virgin become widespread.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Reverse Mortgage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.