Reverse Mortgage Guide

Let’s answer this question once and for all because it is a common one. I know that it seems contrary to what you have always known about obtaining a mortgage but here
goes:

There are no income requirements for a reverse mortgage. This happens because there are no payment requirements for the reverse borrowers, income is not an issue. This works both ways, folks – there are some seniors who simply could not qualify for a regular or “forward” mortgage due to a fixed income or credit issues (we’ll discuss credit in another segment).

Conversely, there are some seniors who receive benefits from certain social programs and can be disqualified from those programs by having too much money in their bank account each month. So too little or too much could be an area of concern for other types of financing or programs. But rest assured, friends, with a reverse mortgage, the fact that you have income (or perhaps, don’t) is not a factor in qualification. To take this one step further, I have written reverse mortgages for seniors whose goal was to never have to work again. Why shouldn’t they enjoy their retirement? Why worry about getting to work during times of inclement weather?

So go ahead, look into a reverse mortgage to see if it’s a good option for you. Financial planners, tax professionals and attorneys who specialize in elder law are good sources of information in addition to reverse mortgage lenders.

Contributor Sue Haviland — based in Baltimore, MD — has been a reverse mortgage specialist for more than five years.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 3:15 am 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.