Hello Deborah, This is a government-insured loan and so the documentation is standard. Proof of identity, the income you use to qualify, the appraisal on the property, title work to see what liens are on the home and if it is a purchase, all the purchase documentation. If this is any property other than a single-family detached residence (condominium, manufactured home, etc.) there may also be additional items needed for the property itself. During the processing of the loan, the lender will run credit and verify the information received for the loan file. In addition, every borrower must go through HUD-approved counseling and obtain a certificate from the counselor. We have a list of the items you will need to send in for your initial package which you can review here that will give you a pretty good idea of the things needed but there is always the possibility that due to unique circumstances in your loan request, other requests may be made of you. If you have specific questions or situations you would like to go over with us, we would be happy to review the areas of concern with you in advance.

Hello Catherine, I assume you mean use your home for collateral for another loan or lien? And the answer to that question is entirely up to the other party from whom you wish to borrow. Nothing in the reverse mortgage prohibits you from taking out additional mortgages however, because the balance of the loan goes up as borrowers accrue interest and do not make payments, and because the amount available grows over time on the unused portion of the line, many other lenders are hesitant to loan behind a reverse mortgage simply because they do not know how high the balance or available line of credit could grow. If you do have a lender who is willing to lend behind the reverse mortgage though, there is no problem with the reverse mortgage under those circumstances.

Hello Nancy, The simple answer to this is yes, but you must qualify with the additional obligation. If you signed on the loan for another person, in this case for your daughter's mortgage, you are legally obligated to make that payment if she does not. Therefore, under residual income requirements, this payment amount will also be considered when determining your ability to qualify for the reverse mortgage. Even if your daughter has been making the payments, you are obligated to make them if she ever doesn't and so HUD includes them in your monthly obligations calculations. So when you ask can you qualify, yes you can. The fact that you co-signed the loan does not in and of itself disqualify you for the reverse mortgage if you are living in your property as your primary residence and meet all of HUD's other requirements. But just know that if the payment amount itself disqualifies you, that is a different issue. Borrowers need to know that when they sign on a loan for a family member or friend, they are promising to also make those payments if needed and that can affect their ability to obtain other credit later. If you don't qualify with the payment on that other property, perhaps your daughter can qualify for a refinance loan on her home on her own now and could refinance that loan in her name alone?It might even work to her benefit if the rate or terms are better now than when she purchased. If she has owned the home for more than a couple years, there is a good chance she has built up some equity and it might be worth looking into if needed.

Hello Sylvia, Reverse mortgages do not use ratios for qualification. Instead, the underwriting uses a residual income method that subtracts all your monthly obligations from your income (including your home taxes and insurance) and you need to have minimum amounts left to live on each month in accordance with HUD requirements. The residual changes with family size and where you live due to the cost of living in different parts of the country and the increased cost to feed and care for a larger family. The required residual is not high and is much easier in most cases to meet than ratio guidelines. Another great feature of the residual method is that cash in the back can be dissipated to equate to income as can the reverse mortgage line itself, even if you don't plan to use a portion of the money every month because you could use it in the manner if you wanted to or needed to. And HUD takes it one step farther by letting folks who still don't meet the residual income requirement still qualify in many cases with a LESA (life expectancy set aside) wherein a portion of the funds are set aside to pay for the taxes and insurance on the property for life which brings your monthly obligations down since you no longer have to pay them – the lender does with funds from your reverse mortgage that are set aside for the sole purpose of paying these expenses when they come due. The bottom line is that you should not automatically assume that you will not qualify. Feel free to visit our calculator and you can see what you might expect to see in benefits from a reverse mortgage based on your age and property value with no personal information other than your month and year of age and the zip code where you live. After that, if you feel the numbers look good for your circumstances, we would be happy to discuss qualification with you based on your income and debts and let you know exactly what you would be looking at in advance.

Hello Peggy, HUD uses a residual income method to qualify borrowers for a reverse mortgage. They will require borrowers to have different amounts depending on what part of the country in which they live and the cost of living and the size of the family living in the home. A single borrower has to have a residual income of $529.00 to $589.00 per month in order to qualify (depending on where you live and you can see the exact amounts in our article here. Residual income is the amount of money left over after paying all other debts. And before you panic if you think you don't quite make it, many times the reverse mortgage proceeds themselves or cash you have in the bank may be able to get you to the required level through a method known as asset dissipation. This is where the underwriter can assign an income value for funds you have assuming that if you had to use some each month to assist your income, you could. I would encourage you to visit our calculator to see what you might expect to receive from the loan and if the numbers look good, we would be happy to give you a no-hassle and no-obligation review of your qualification.

Good Afternoon Ustav, Firstly, if you own a home valued at $350,000, your loan will only be a portion of that value and that portion will depend on your age, the program you choose and the interest rates in effect at the time. Furthermore, your loan "term" is for your life, but you can choose if you want the payments to continue for as long as you live in the home and that option is called a "tenure" payment option or for a specified time period (such as the 15 years you mentioned) known as the "term payment" option. Both options could calculate differently, depending on the age of the youngest borrower. In short, I cannot give you the exact numbers based on the information you have given me, but I can go one step better. You can access our online calculator where with very little information (never a social security number or anything private), you can get the answers to all of these questions and compare the different options to see which is better for you. The information available to you includes the amount for which you are eligible based on your age(s), property value and current interest rates. You would be able to review the amortization schedule for any program you wish so you can see under both the term and the tenure options what you would owe at the end of 1, year, 5 years, 10 years and so on year by year, through the life of the loan. You would be able to see a list of closing costs for your area and a TALC which is a disclosure for reverse mortgages and stands for Total All Loan Costs that shows you what the effective cost is at various points in the loan. And as I said, there is a separate loan comparison so that you can see what the line of credit, different payment options or even the fixed rate lump sum payment would look like if you so choose. I think you will be much happier having the actual information you have requested rather than me giving you all estimates because I don't have the full information needed. If you want any further information after that, we would be happy to help you but if not, you will not be hassled or pressured. Give the calculator on our website a try, I think you will like it!

Hello Gustavo, You can do a reverse mortgage at any time with no waiting period required. There is a very good possibility that the loan amount would be determined by the purchase price or the current appraised value, whichever is less, if the purchase price is considerably lower than the current appraised value though. If that is the case (the value is now much higher than the amount you paid to purchase), you are safe at just the appraised value after one year.

Hi Lydia,The short answer is probably yes but, I have to be honest with you in that the property and the transaction must meet HUD's guidelines. I'm not sure what you mean by "split one acre for her and one for me". Has the property gone through an official lot split so that there are two separate parcels now or is it one parcel with the two of you each owning a portion of the entire piece of land? There would be different steps involved depending on the circumstances.If there are two separate parcels where your parcel is completely separate with its own legal description containing only your acre of land, with just you on title and there are comparable sales in the area with similar sized lots then there should be no issues with the reverse mortgage in just your name on your parcel. The lot split could in no way adversely affect the marketability of the home (there could be no easements created that split the lot in half, the lot could not become land-locked, etc.) In this case you would be the only individual on title to your parcel though and would not require your sister's approval so I suspect this is not the case based on your comments.If you mean by your sister is "allowing" you to do the reverse mortgage that the lot is staying intact as the two acre parcel, then there are a couple of other concerns. Firstly, if your sister is living with you (and it doesn't sound like she is), she would also have to be on the loan and no additional title work other than for any other loan would need to be completed if you are both on title to the property now. If you are both on title now but your sister does not or will not be occupying the property, then she would have to deed her interest in the property to you. All owners of the property would have to be occupants of the home and on the loan to be eligible for the reverse mortgage. She could not remain on title and not occupy the property and still have the loan go through.Now I have to also give you a little more food for thought. I am not a tax attorney and I cannot tell from your email from which state you are writing, but I would also suggest that you contact an attorney who specializes in property transfers and taxation in the area before you determine how you are going to proceed. Some states allow a transfer and as long as the transfer value is marked 0 value on the Deed and that it is an interfamily transfer it will not trigger a taxable event. Some states are considering that a "gift" or secondary transfer after the inheritance and will levy a tax and possibly raise future taxes. Some states require that you verify heirship through affidavits before a transfer may occur. The time and cost of the attorney is extremely valuable considering it may save you from a very costly mistake if you don't handle the transfer correctly.I wish you the best.

Hi Sally,I can't possibly advise you on whether or not you should go live with your father, that is a call you would have to make. I can tell you that whether you go live there or not, your dad will be able to live in the home for the rest of his life and then when he permanently leave the home (either from his death or if he had to go to an assisted living facility), the loan would then become due and payable. If you are his heirs, then you would have to option of keeping the home or selling the home at that time but if you choose to keep the property, you would have to be able to pay off the existing loan with either money you have available to you or be able to qualify for a new loan in your names at that time. Otherwise, you would have to sell the property at that time. You don't have to "buy the property" from the lender if you are your dad's heir, you would already own the property. You just need to keep these things in mind and plan accordingly whether you choose to move there or not if you are the heir and will be the owner of the property one day. It might make a difference as to how you prepare for ownership and loan payoff.

Hi Elizabeth, The reverse mortgage company does not "own" the house at the time the borrower passes. The loan becomes due and payable and it is up to the borrower's heirs to determine how they want to accomplish this. They can choose to sell the home and repay the loan, refinance the loan in their own name(s) or they can pay the loan off with other funds available to them. The lender does not own the property at this time and they do not own any personal property inside, it still belongs to the heirs of the borrower. Also, since the loan is a non-recourse loan, the lender can never seek repayment from any other assets to repay the loan. In other words, if the borrowers received all the funds before the prices of homes fell so dramatically in most areas of the country and lived there for many years without having to make payments, all the while accruing interest and now upon passing the property is not worth as much as is owed on the reverse mortgage, the heirs have the option to choose to either repay the obligation at 95% of the current appraised value or simply allow the lender to take the property to repay the obligation. Regardless of which option they choose, they still have the right to all the borrower's personal belongings and, as stated, the lender cannot seek repayment from any other assets other than the property itself.