Hello Jackie,Let's start with your options as a family member and possible heir. The lender can't "sell" you the property because they don't own it. Your grandmother's estate owns the home until the rightful heir changes the title. Either decides to keep the home or dispose of the property (Deeds it back to the lender, Deeds it to another family member, or sells the property), or the lender takes possession/ownership through a foreclosure sale. At this time, if you want to "buy" it, you would need to work that deal out with the rightful heir if that is not you. If the loan balance on the property is greater than the current market value due to the property's condition, that would be considered in HUD's payoff calculations (which I will outline below). Still, you must first determine which family member is the rightful heir and see if they are willing to Deed the property to you. Your grandmother may have had the property in a trust, she may have had a will or may have passed without making her wishes known, and at that point, there may be another heir who may also contest the ownership of the property. There is a good chance that the property will need to be placed into probate, which means that a court will need to award the ownership to an heir (which could be you if the other heirs agree).If the heirs all agree that you are to receive the home, you can approach the lender and inform them that you will be receiving the home as soon as the probate is final and tell them you intend to keep the property. HUD will allow you to pay off the loan in full at the lesser amount owed or 95% of the current appraised value. They will send an appraiser into the home. They will inspect the home, noting all the deferred maintenance, damage, etc., and determine a value based on sales of similar homes in the area. HUD will allow you to pay off the current loan at the amount owed or 95% of that appraised value if the appraised value is less than the amount owed. The answer to your question is yes. You can pay the loan in full for less than the outstanding loan amount if the home's value is lower than that amount. However, that can only be substantiated by an appraisal by a HUD-approved appraiser. To get to that point, you need first to find out if you are your grandmother's actual heir; if not, contact your family member who is and find out if they even want the property. If they do not, ask them if they will allow you to take it instead. Just remember that the loan is due and payable. You either need the cash to pay off the loan in full (either at the amount owed or 95% of the market value), or you need to be able to get a new loan to refinance the loan in your name. You will only have a little time to complete new financing if you wait to apply until after the probate takes several months, so you need to start inquiring about that from the start as well if you need financing to complete this venture.

Hello Dale,You don't need to "buy" the home if you are your mom's heir. She needs to be sure that she puts the necessary procedures in place so that the title passes to you and you take any steps required in your state to secure the title after that. For example, she can add you to the title now (that's allowed with the reverse mortgage), which gives you full ownership when she passes if that is her wish. There may still be other requirements you need to complete (such as probate, etc.), so I recommend you contact an estate attorney to make the title change as quickly and smoothly as possible.The reverse mortgage will become due and payable, and you will need to pay the amount owed on that loan. Since the property is worth more than that amount, that is your equity as her heir, not the bank's, because your mom (or your mom and you if she adds you to the title) owns the home, not the bank. And the sooner you pay that loan off, the sooner it will stop accruing interest and mortgage insurance.

Hello Darlene, That's not always an easy task. You can pull the recorded documents to see who the lender was when the loan was first recorded but that does not mean that the loan was not sold to another lender or assigned to HUD since then. Since loans are assigned electronically through MERS since 1999 and there are no longer independent assignments recorded each time a loan is sold it is much more difficult for others to determine who the lender of record is after a loan transfer from the original lender. This has been much better for homeowners to have old liens removed as the electronic assignment is not lost if a lender ever goes out of business, but it makes it harder for others to determine who a current lender may be. You can start with the original lender to see if they still hold the servicing of the loan and if not, you can look at the Case Number that is printed on the front of the recorded Deed of Trust or Mortgage. It is a unique 10-digit number assigned to the property/loan by HUD to be used for an FHA-insured loan which includes HUD HECM reverse mortgages. It will be three numbers followed by a dash then the remainder of the numbers. With that number, HUD can track the loan information and they would always know who the current lender is (even if that is HUD themselves). HUD would probably not give you any information but if you contacted the local Homeownership Center (HOC) with the property address and the Case Number from the recorded documents, pictures of the property and information that the home has been vacant for 6 years, you may be successful in getting them to act. HUD office locations can be found on the HUD site at: https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/field_policy_mgt/localoffices and you should contact the regional office that services the area where the property is located.

Hello Miguel, You can use a reverse mortgage to purchase a home if you qualify under the HUD guidelines, but you cannot assume an existing reverse mortgage on a property. The loan was never meant to be a multi-generational loan. The benefits (including the available loan limit or loan amount) are determined based on several factors, one being the borrower's age at the time the loan closes. Those factors depend on repayments at certain intervals.

Hello Darryl, There are always costs when selling a home and if the current mortgage balance exceeds the sale price, you would need the lender's approval to sell the home for less than the amount owed. If the lender does not approve a sale for less than the full amount owed (which includes any outstanding fees, mortgage insurance premiums unpaid and sums advanced by the lender or HUD, if any), then the lender or HUD would need to agree to accept a short payoff of less than that full amount or they can demand payment in full or not release the home which would defeat your sale.

Hello Teresa, When you buy the home, the reverse mortgage will be paid in full so you will have no other concerns that any other purchaser of property has. I would suggest that you use a title company and have the transaction handled through them with title insurance and that way if there are any liens or other issues of which you are not currently aware, they can be dealt with at the time and then your title will be insured and clear for anything you need to do later.

Hello David, I am sorry, but I don't have enough information to answer your question. Did you close with a reputable title company or closing attorney? Were you given copies of all your documentation which included a copy of the executed Grant Deed? Were you the one taking out a reverse mortgage or you were told it had an existing reverse mortgage that you were supposedly taking over? Reverse mortgages are not assumable and if you did not get the loan on your own, that loan will be called due and payable as soon as the lender becomes aware of the situation. If the owner had a reverse mortgage that did not get paid off and somehow, has you believing you "bought" the home, that is not the case because they cannot show a change of ownership or the lender will call the loan due and payable. Your whole transaction sounds suspect but I honestly do not know your circumstances because when you mention payments, it sounds like I have my facts/assumptions incorrect.

Hello Fadia,You need to be very careful when you buy property at auction. Many times, there are liens and mortgages that are still on the property after the title changes with the sale auction. You pay off whatever lien allowed the creditor to foreclose but often there are other mortgages and liens in a prior position that are not removed in the sale process. You need to do a title search before bidding on any property and get title insurance whenever possible. That loan is valid as are any other liens that were on when you bought the property that were not in junior lien position.

Hello Louis, I am afraid I cannot answer this for you and would suggest you contact a real estate attorney to advise you. If you bought a property with liens on the property that were prior to whomever you purchased the home from, those liens do not just go away and if the reverse mortgage was on the property before you bought it, I would think it is still there and that you would need to resolve that lien. Did you get a title report and insurance at the sale? Who auctioned the property? What assurances were given that there were no liens or mortgages on the property? I think you should speak to an attorney sooner rather than later because if there is a reverse mortgage on the property and the owner sold the home, that lender will call the loan due and payable followed by a foreclosure proceeding if the loan is not paid in full fairly soon.

Hello Karen,You can get whatever you feel would further support your case but the lender is not required to accept any offer less than the amount owed on the loan if they feel it is not warranted. It may not be a smart move on their part and they may end up sitting on the property for years but that has happened in the past at times so there is no guarantee that anything you present will be accepted, even if it does seem to make sense. You may need to decide if it is worth your efforts to continue to pursue the property if the lender/HUD does not wish to entertain your offer.

Hello Lori, I am sorry, I honestly cannot answer this for you. HUD may need to approve any requests of this nature and that would go through the lender. HUD reviews each request on a case-by-case basis if they have not issued guidance to lenders' servicing departments to allow them to accept such scenarios up to certain amounts without HUD approval and I am not aware of any such guidance (not saying they haven't issued it I am not aware of their servicing directives in all cases). You can always make the offer, but they would then need to go to the lender and I do not know how quickly they will be able to respond.

Hello Nina, If your mother has passed, as the heir you have the right to pay off the loan at the lower of the amount owed or 95% of the current market value as established by an FHA approved appraiser. If your mother is still living, HUD will not allow a short sale to a family member at this time at 25% of the amount owed.

Hello Miami, The only way you could accomplish that would be to contact the heirs of the deceased property owner and negotiate a sale before the lender forecloses on the property. The only entity who can sell you the property now is the rightful heir of the person who owned it. The lender cannot sell it to you prior to the foreclosure auction because they do not own it. If it does go all the way to foreclosure auction, the auction will take place with the initial bid being the lender's bid of what is owed on the loan plus any foreclosure costs. If no one bids higher, the property will go to the lender by Trustee's sale and Trustee's Deed. If the lender is outbid on their opening bid, the lender cannot raise the bid, they are then out of the auction and the party with the highest bid will win the property. If the lender becomes the new owner, they will go through the Real Estate Owned process with HUD and the property will be sold in accordance with HUD direction.

Hello Moriah, It is hard for me to advise you here. I for one would not incur the full cost of real estate broker for a simple family transfer but would want to open an escrow and title order so that the transaction was an insured transaction. This would mean that you would have professionals who work with title changes and loan payoffs handling this aspect of your transaction. It would make it so much easier for the payoff of the reverse mortgage and for you for the future if your sale transaction is an insured transaction (and it you are going to finance your purchase a new lender would require it). If you have any other family members (aunts or uncles who are children of your grandparents, other siblings or cousins) you may want to have an attorney structure the sale just so that there are no possible issues later if someone thinks they didn't get something they should have (sad, but it happens all the time). An attorney can certainly advise you on what the best way to handle the transaction so that there can be no family issues later. That would need to be your preference and you know your family situation. If you are going to consider using a real estate broker, I would certainly approach one and tell them you will agree to a flat fee well below their standard 6% just to handle the paperwork. As for the balance, all you need to do is get hold of your grandparents' latest statement and it will tell you the balance owed on the loan. It will also tell you what the amount of interest that accrues on a monthly basis and give you an idea of what the balance will be for the next couple months as well as you add interest to the existing balance. Your numbers will not be exact unless you know how to compute mortgage accrual, but it will be close enough so that you can make some decisions and plans.

Hello Ciara,HUD has this option so that when a borrower passes, the heirs can choose to keep the home and repay the loan at the approximate amount that the lender/HUD would expect to get in a sale on the open market anyway. They do not typically allow borrower's heirs to come in and "time the market" so that they can pay off the loan at below the amount owed while the borrower is still alive and living in the property. If they engaged in this practice, people would be forever paying off the homes at downturns and "writing off" the paper losses that show at that time before the market can recover.If your grandmother is leaving the home permanently due to health needs, etc., you may find the lender and HUD are more willing to work with you at that time. If they realize that this loan will come to an end one way or the other at this time and this is an opportunity to mitigate losses by allowing you to purchase from your grandmother as she leaves, then they may be willing to allow the alternate pay off. You would need to contact the servicer with your grandmother, explain the circumstances for her plans/need to vacate the property and make the request.

Hello Ramona, There are no restrictions as far as the reverse mortgage goes about for what amount your mom can sell the home to you and your daughter. If you can repay the loan, there is no requirement for any lender or HUD approval on the transaction. With regard to loan programs available to you and your daughter, I am sorry I do not stay abreast of forward lending programs and I would advise you to contact a lender working with those programs to see what you will need to finance the purchase (we do only reverse mortgages and I would not want to give you bad information since the last forward loan we closed was over 12 years ago). I would guess you will need at least a 5% down payment to do a "purchase" but perhaps you could arrange for an inheritance gift and a refinance with a healthy equity position that does not require the down payment the purchase would. I would ask your lender about those different options.

I am not sure I understand the nature of the question. Are you asking if he can buy the house from the lender or from mom? If mom still owns the home, she sells him the home the same as she would if she had any other loan. They determine a purchase price, enter escrow and close the transaction. The loan will be due and payable when mom no longer owns the home, so he does have to have his financing in place to pay off the reverse mortgage at the close of the transaction. If mom has passed, she (or more accurately her estate) still owns the home if she has not already put a vehicle such as a trust in place that would transfer title in the event of her passing. In that case, the loan is now due and payable, but your husband only must worry about "purchasing" the home if he is not the one who would be the new title holder. If there are other heirs also involved, he would have to negotiate that with them. Again, he must have his own financing in place to retire the reverse mortgage that is now due and payable. And keep in mind, if the loan balance is greater than the property value in this case, the heir(s) can pay off the loan for the existing balance or 95% of the current market value of the home, whichever is less. If the loan became due and payable and no one stepped in to repay the loan and it did go all the way to foreclosure sale, then whoever bought the property at foreclosure sale, whether that is the lender or another party, would now own the property and could sell the home for whatever terms they wished at this point. Once the home is owned by someone other than the original owner after a foreclosure, the new owner can keep, sell or do whatever they wish with the property.

Hi Gerri,You don't have to "purchase" dad's home, dad still owns it. Now that dad is no longer living in the home as his permanent residence, the loan will be called due and payable at some point so you just need to decide what you want to do with the house. Your decision will be whether or not you want to pay off the loan and keep the house (you can pay the loan off with funds available to you or with a new loan), or sell the home and pay the loan off, or if there is no equity left if the home, walk away and let the lender dispose of the property.The first thing you should do is look at your father's latest statement and see what he owes on the loan. Then check to see what the homes are selling for in the area for similar properties. Now you will know if there is any equity currently left in the home and can make your decision knowing the financial status of the home.If the home has a lot of equity, you can choose to pay off the loan and keep the home or you can choose to list the home and sell it. If the balance on the loan is higher than the property's current value but you still would like to keep the home, as the heir, you have the option to pay off the existing loan at 95% of the current market value. You can also choose to remove all of dad's personal property and let the lender take the home because the lender has no other recourse than to take the home and can look to no other assets for repayment. In other words, you don't have to do anything if you do not want to.Since the lender cannot look to any other assets to repay the obligation, if you remove all of dad's personal effects and "broom clean" the home, the lender would probably accept a deed in lieu of foreclosure which would resolve the whole issue a lot faster if that's what you would like to do but in any case you can sell, keep or walk away from the home. Broom cleaning means you don't have to hire a crew to go in and completely scour the home. You just need to have all personal effects removed and the home has to be empty.