Hello Cindy, Before you attempt to sell the property short of the amount needed to pay off the loan, you should contact your servicer to determine that they will allow the short sale to take place. They will tell you what they need and once you have approval, then you would be able to sell the home at an amount no less than the approved sale price. They will also give you the terms under which they will accept a short sale offer which would probably include that the sale must be to a bona fide third party and not a "non-arm's length" sale to a family member. I would advise you to contact your servicer and let them know the conditions in which you find yourself that require the sale at this time and go from there.

Hello Jimmy,I can't tell you that your lender won't report, but I can tell you that in my conversations with servicers, they do not report reverse mortgages to credit bureaus. Because there are no payments due and the loan is a non-recourse loan, and the loan is designed to end with the passing of the borrowers or the sale of the home, there really is no point to it. I would find it very surprising if the lender reported your loan to credit bureaus at all. I have not spoken to all servicers so I cannot assure you that your servicer is also of this same mindset, but perhaps you could contact them and ask.Borrowers are ineligible for another reverse mortgage if they have a loss outstanding on a loan. Because you can live in the home for the rest of your life and you are choosing to sell the home at a loss now, HUD would not allow another reverse mortgage if the loss is still outstanding.However, you hit the nail on the head. If you repaid any losses to HUD, you would once again be eligible for the program.

Hello Daniel, In any short sale situation, the sale is contingent upon the lenders' approval and your real estate agent should know how to present the offer so that it reflects this verbiage. The 95% rule is for heirs wishing to retain the property and pay off the loan at an amount less than what is owed based on a lower value, it is not relevant in this situation. However, you don't know what HUD will or will not approve at this point. They will probably want to complete an appraisal before they will tell you if they approve any terms you submit. If they believe it would cost them as much or more in the long run to foreclose and market the home themselves, they may accept the offer (even if it is only 95%). If they think your offer is too low, they would reject it and opt for the foreclosure. At any rate, you just never know until you try! Are you already authorized to speak with the lender on behalf of your father on the loan? Remember that if you are not on the loan, you do not have title to the property or have not been granted authorization to conduct business on the loan on behalf of your dad, the lender cannot even discuss the loan with you. If dad still retains capacity, he can contact the lender with you to give you the authorization to work with them and it will make things much easier. If not, if you have a Power of Attorney, he granted to you before he lost capacity, there will be other things you have to do before it will be recognized, but it will also help. An estate attorney can be extremely helpful at times like these and well worth the cost if you have not seen one already.

Good Morning, I really am not sure what you're asking. Firstly, if your father paid off the reverse mortgage, there is nothing owed on the loan and the lender has no interest in the property. If dad paid the loan off, the lender has no right to the property and cannot sell it to anyone. Dad or his estate owns the home, not the lender. The lender could sell a property if the loan was not paid off but only if the borrower defaulted on the loan. Even then though the lender could not sell the property unless it first completed a foreclosure action on the property. This would be true for any loan, reverse or forward. But just as with any loan, on a reverse mortgage, your father always owns the property. The lender does not own the home unless they had to foreclose on the loan due to a default under the terms of the loan. In that case, if your dad (or you as the heir if dad has passed away) did not step in to take steps to cure the foreclosure and the action went all the way to foreclosure sale, the only money that might go to dad or to the estate would be any amount that someone else outbid the lender at the foreclosure auction. Finally, under any of the circumstances above, the decision of who money would go to would not be the lenders to make. The condo or the money in the estate would be determined by any wishes that dad left in his will, trust, etc. and absent any written instructions, it is typically decided by the courts through a probate action. I would strongly suggest that you contact an estate attorney to determine what rights you have before it is too late as well as determine any steps you need to take to protect your standing.

Hi Charles, The loan is now due and payable. The lender has no requirement that you must allow them to sell the house. In fact, the lender does not own the home, dad's estate still does if you have not taken the steps to change the title yet and the lender cannot dictate to you how or to whom you can sell the house. The lender would rather you sell the home yourself or refinance the obligation with a new loan and pay the loan off but what they can dictate is the time allotted to you to accomplish this. The loan is now due and payable, and the lender will call all sums due under the Note and ask you what you plan to do. The lender will work with you for 3 months at a time with extensions available if they see that the home is being actively marketed and they believe everything is being done to sell the home in a timely manner. If they believe you are doing everything possible and the market warrants the additional time, the lender can grant extensions to allow for a successful sale. However, the lender would begin foreclosure proceedings and you would run the risk of losing not only the property but also any equity in it as well if they felt that you were not making a good faith effort to sell the home. This might be the case if your asking price is too high, if the marketing time exceeds other properties in the area, etc. In this case, the lender would begin foreclosure proceedings and your costs would increase even if the home sold before a full foreclosure was completed. If the lender did have to go all the way to foreclosure, the home would be sold at foreclosure auction and most bidders at the foreclosure sales do not pay top dollar. The beginning bid is the amount owed to the lender and then any amount bid over that initial bid (if any) would go to you. If no one bids any higher, the lender owns the home and you would receive nothing from the sale. There is no conceivable way that the lender would allow the process to drag out 5 years. The home was your father's and he was certainly within his rights to obtain a reverse mortgage so it's not a matter of "consumer protection". The loan is not a multi-generational loan and never was intended to be. As your father's heir, your choices are to pay off the loan and keep the property, sell the property or just walk away and let the lender worry about it and owe nothing.If there is still equity in the home, I would strongly suggest that you contact a real estate professional and look into listing the home as soon as possible but don't forget that you may have to go through probate if the property is not in a trust where you become successor trustee with the passing of your father. In that case, it may take a little time for the title to be transferred to you so that you can sell it. I would also strongly suggest that you consult with an estate attorney so that he/she can help you resolve all title issues as quickly as possible.

Hello Kathy, I would not advise this course of action. Once the borrower leaves the home, it could trigger the lender calling the note due to the borrower's no longer living in the home as his principal residence. Would they, the depends on whether they intend to approve the short sale terms I would imagine but you have already stated that they have not been approved at this time. If the terms are not approved, I don't know what that would do to your transaction, i.e. if all parties would come back to renegotiate, if it would blow up your deal or what. At any rate, the move of the borrower and the occupancy of the home by someone else is a default under the terms of the existing loan and it is not an action I would advise. How long do you believe it will be until the terms of the transaction are approved? Do you know if HUD will approve them and if not, what is "plan B"? I would ask the lender if this is something that the buyer insists on to be sure that there is nothing that would throw a glitch into a positive completion of the sale.

Hi Morris,HUD allows heirs to pay off the loan at the lower of the amount owed or 95% of the current appraised value if they wish to keep the home. If you are selling the home, the payoff Demand would be issued at the amount owed which sounds like $215,000. Anything you receive above that amount does belong to your mom and her estate.

Good Afternoon Hubert, Not really, it will be just like any other loan that you pay off BUT there are two things to remember. Firstly, like any FHA loan, forward or reverse, interest is paid through the whole month no matter what day of the month you pay the loan off. So, if you are getting close to the end of the month do whatever you can to get everything coordinated so that the lender receives the payoff before the first of the next month. Otherwise, you will pay another month's interest and why pay it if you don't have to. Sometimes buyers, realtors and escrow companies/settlement providers are not as motivated to push to close a few days earlier if it looks like it won't close by month-end but it could save you a lot of money if you can and the difference is before the end of the month or a couple days into the next month. Secondly, reverse mortgage servicers typically quote 5 working days to produce a Beneficiary's Payoff Demand, and they usually use it! Don't let the title company or Settlement Provider (could be escrow or attorney as well) wait for the last minute to order that payoff Demand. It doesn't do any good to order the Demand months in advance and in fact would cost you more if the lender must update the Demand before closing, but if the Settlement Provider waits for the last minute the closing could be delayed. Especially since your home is vacant, the buyers may want to move the closing and it is in your best interest to accommodate such a request, but you might be stopped from doing so if the closing agent had not yet ordered the Demand. Remind them that you know the Demand may take the entire 5 working days (and could be even a day or two longer if anything comes up) and so if there is any chance at all of an earlier closing date, make sure that payoff statement is ordered on time.

Hello Bill, You can offer anything you like, it will be up to the seller and their circumstances (of which I have no idea) if they will, or even can, accept your offer. Their response will likely depend on several things. If the borrowers are still in the property, the home is not yet lender owned (a foreclosure has not been completed) so there is no way to know if the "bottom line number" they are giving you is the actual amount owed or if that includes what they feel they need to walk away with from the sale. There are several questions I do not know currently such as is this really the bottom he is "capable of going" or that he is willing to go? And is capable meaning because he has a number, he needs to hit in order to have enough to sell, pay the realtor, and move or what? There is no minimum for which a seller can sell their home other than one they self-impose on the sale and whether the selling price would put them below the actual amount owed on the loan which would then require the lender/HUD approval. From what you have said, it really doesn't appear that this is a case of the loan amount being too high -but I do not know for sure. I would say that if you are serious about purchasing, make the offer you feel is fair and see where the chips fall! There are no consequences other than the fact that the seller may choose to not accept the offer and not even counter. I would also advise that you have a licensed real estate broker represent you in the transaction so that they can present other sales to the seller at the time to support your offer (or tell you in advance if your offer is unreasonably low). The commissions are paid by the seller in the listing fees so it does not cost you anything to have professional representation and I would highly suggest it. The licensed agent may be able to save some hard feelings by doing some advance research and present your case more convincingly if you are correct that the price is too high and the recent sales support that position.

Hello Juliet, Your dad has up to 12 months to return if he is out on a temporary medical absence. If he has not returned by then, the absence is considered permanent and the loan would become due and payable. When you say "Can I sell the appliances", I would caution you a bit. Firstly, if you sell the items that make the home habitable and the lender has a home inspection performed during this time, it would be obvious that you did not intend for your father to return and they would be within their authority to call the loan immediately due and payable. They are only required to wait 12 months for temporary absences but it you make it clear that you don't anticipate him returning, they would not consider it temporary either. Secondly, I would have to ask, which appliances? Free standing appliances like washer and dryer belong to your father and can be sold by your father or moved at his discretion. Build in appliances are considered real property though and could leave you or your father's estate open to possible liability if you were to take things like built in refrigerators, dishwashers, built-in microwaves and ovens, etc. As long as you are only talking about personal property, you or your dad can do whatever you wish but if you start taking real property out of the home, you could be open to issues later and that is not a question for me to answer.

Hi Kevin,I'm not sure I follow your question but I think I know where you are ultimately going so let me take a stab at it and if I don't answer your question fully, please don't hesitate to get back to us. The loan is a non-recourse loan which means that a borrower can never owe more than the property is worth. So in this case, if your mom's condo was worth less than the amount owed on the loan, she would never have to pay more than the property was worth. In this case though, I think you are telling me that your mom only used $20,000 of the total available to her and therefore, the property is still worth more than the amount owed. In this case, even if she has additional funds available to her, she only owes what she borrowed (plus any interest that accrued on that balance) and not the full amount of the line that was available to her.

Hi Leslie, As long as you only have reverse mortgage at a time and they conclude with no loss to HUD, there is no limit on the number of reverse mortgages that you can have and you can get them one right after another.

Hello Bob,I would definitely contact the servicer and let them know of your parents' failing health and the need to move. This will not be the first time they have had borrowers who have had to vacate their home due to health reasons and they will know how to advise you on the easiest and best way to proceed.

Hi Stewart,The owner of the home owns the house, not the mortgage holder! The owner(s) decide when to sell the house and do not need any permission from the lender to do so. You get a monthly statement so you know how much you owe at any given time and therefore you have that information available to you when you meet with real estate sales people.

Hi Elizabeth,A HUD Settlement Statement, otherwise known as a "HUD I" is simple the statement that is provided to every party whenever a transaction closes that details the transaction. It does not have to be a HUD insured loan for the Title Company or Attorney to issue a HUD I Settlement Statement. Most companies require both an estimated statement prior to close and then a final statement at closing. this should not create anyone any issues since all it will do is breakdown the entire transaction for the parties and show all fees and what money goes where.As for your further responsibilities, the reverse mortgage is a non-recourse loan. You have no further responsibility to the transaction and the lender cannot seek repayment from any of you, they can only look to the home for repayment of the debt. As for requirements of you to complete this deal, if the foreclosure is completed prior to the sale, then the lender can sell it without your involvement at all as they would then own the property. As it is now, you would only be required to assist with the final sale since the property is still under your control and ownership.

Hi John,I can't advise you on the new loan, I do not originate any forward mortgages any more so I don't know what options you have there. You do own the house now though so the equity is yours and you can sell or refinance the home, whichever option is best for you. If credit is an issue and you want to keep the home, there have recently re-emerged several less than prime lending sources so you could start by contacting any one of them to see what their lending criteria is. I'm sorry, I don't work with any of them and I do not have a recommendation for you. I do wish you the best.

Hi Mike,It's just like any other loan at payoff. They don't give you any additional funds but you only pay off what you owe. In other words, you will pay off the new balance of $80,000 plus any additional fees and interest and then when you sell the home, you will keep the entire amount above and beyond the final payoff amount.