Proceeds from the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) can be used to purchase a new home. That’s good news for seniors who want to downsize to a less expensive home or move to a city with a cheaper cost of living. But even if you use a reverse mortgage for a house purchase, you still have to sell your current residence. Here are 5 tips to get your property sold.

1. Tackle home repairs and maintenance issues that might be a turn off for buyers. Broken windows, rotting wood, peeling paint, and ripped carpets are just some of the issues you may need to resolve before putting your home on the market.
2. Update rooms with old decor. While you don’t want to invest too much money in this area, it can pay to replace old appliances and carpets to give a home a more modern finish. A new coat of paint in a neutral color can keep potential buyers from being distracted by decor from a previous era.
3. Clear out clutter. No one wants to trip over a bunch of junk when touring a home. Sell or pack up nonessential items to make rooms appear more spacious.
4. Stage your home. Remove family photos and other personal items when showing your home to potential buyers. The idea is to allow people to visualize living in the house with their own stuff.
5. Hire a real estate agent. While you may want to save money by selling your own property, you may get better results by hiring a pro who has access to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).

Become familiar with all the reverse mortgage guidelines for an HECM. A HUD-approved reverse loan counselor can walk you through the steps required to borrow money and use it to downsize to another home.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 3:40 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.