Reverse mortgages

[StevenY970254]

 This is becoming a closed-door mystery between those who offer them, online, like Mutual of Omaha, and others offering them. Online. I spoke to my bank loan officer (who was on to me about home equity loans, which is what they mainly sell) about reverse mortgages, and he sounded like he was speaking in a hedged way: there's not much demand for them anymore; he did not know about them much, etc. So that did it for details and devils in the latter instance. 

Does anyone know much about these? Pros and cons seem sketchy online, and unless I talk to a rep., I can't answer all the questions, such as : "you do not have to pay on the loan until you die." (???)

I co-own our home, but will have little income when my wife - who I had to cover on SSA before I was 65 - and my daughter is OK with getting less of an inheritance (or none) if I need to sort of pawn my equity on the home (as I dimly see it) until I suppose the reverse mortgage folks take possession when I die in year X into time. As my wife has been ill for a long time and is older, I assume I will be the survivor (though it would be good if I went first). In any case I must be real, seeing as my wife is Swedish and naturalized here, and is a partial burden right now. Without enough income, even w/some securities and savings, it seems to be my best option for staying in the US northeast w/o pestering or burdening my hard working daughter unnecessarily (I am trying to consider her feelings etc.). Another one unrelated to mortgages appears to be selling the home for enough $ to satisfy Mexican financial clauses about living there until I go (it is either 14 SSA annually or 280K in savings - the latter for me is very doable). Having asthma and another inflammation disease in the bowels, the climate would be perfect for me as I go out. It is rough in the northeast

Anyone w/any useful advice, please?

[GailL1]

HUD has the FHA HECM program - Home Equity Conversion Mortgages for Seniors.

https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/housing/sfh/hecm/hecmhome 

You can find all about it at the above link. Or you can also talk to an FHA lender or a HUD Housing Counselor.  Go with this type rather than a lender hybrid.    

Read carefully all the documents - even the very small mice type and understand how it works.

 The “co-owner” might be a problem if the other party doesn’t want it (your wife).  As for selling the home to move to Mexico, as I understand your post, - the reverse mortgage would have to be satisfied with sale proceeds at the closing.  

Why not a Home Equity Loan (fixed interest rate) [HEL] or better yet a Home Equity Line of Credit [HELOC] - with either of those the borrower is in much more control and there are fewer rules to comply with - although properly insuring the home and keeping the taxes paid on it are a condition of any loan against the home.  

Of course with a HEL or a HELOC, you have to have the income to show that you can make the payments on the amount borrowed.  But the HEL or the HELOC would be much easier to dissolve at closing if you sell the home after getting one of them.  You know exactly what you owe with a HEL or a HELOC - with a reverse mortgage the amount of the payback to dissolve it when the home is close is a bit more obscure (in the math) because it is based on the amount that has been advanced to you + interest.  Like I said this would be covered in the reverse mortgage closing documents. 

[sktn77a]

Difficult to fully understand your post - do you live in the US or Mexico.  If the US, the reverse mortgage is the choice of last resort to fund your final years.  But it is a valid choice.  If Mexico, they may have different rules on reverse mortgages.

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/what-is-a-reverse-mortgage-en-224/