By: Dennis Norman
Many seniors find themselves in a situation where there are struggling to keep up with rising costs of gasoline, utilities, property taxes and insurance but yet they own a home that is either paid for or has a significant amount of equity. Since, in many cases, they have been in their homes for years, raised families and have a lifetime of memories in their home selling it to realize the equity out of it is usually not something they would consider.
A “reverse mortgage” may be a “best of both worlds” alternative: A chance to get some of the equity out of your home in order to help with your living expenses or to meet an emergency or unexpected expense, without giving up the ownership of your home and without the risk of losing your home.
Tom Carter, President Carter Lending
I recently spoke with Tom Carter of Carter Lending here in St. Louis, Missouri, a mortgage banker that focuses on and specializes in reverse mortgages to learn more about them. Tom’s company has helped many seniors by taking advantage of FHA’s (Federal Housing Administration), reverse mortgage plan. Following are some highlights of the program as well as information on reverse mortgages that Tom shared with me:
a lump-sum payment use it as an equity line of credit – request the money when, and if, you need it as a monthly payment to you for the life of the loan a combination of the above methods
Perhaps the most important thing is if you do an FHA reverse mortgage you CANNOT LOSE YOUR HOME! FHA reverse mortgages are for a term of 60 to 69 years so, since you have to be 62 to qualify, unless you plan to live to be older than 122 years than you don’t have to worry.
Tom suggests you read the information available from HUD (The US Department of Housing and Urban Development) including their website explaining how their reverse mortgage program works. In addition, Tom suggests checking out a publication by the American Association of Retired People (AARP) on reverse mortgages when considering a reverse mortgage.After doing your research if you would like to find out how to obtain a reverse mortgage or learn more about it please feel free to contact Tom Carter via email at carterlending@carterlending.com, by telephone at 314-731-2211 or check out his informative website on reverse mortgages (click on the link)
Author’s disclaimer: Author as well as other people and companies affiliated with this blog presently provide e-marketing services for Carter Lending. This article originally appeared on www.RealEstateConsumerNews.com and was written before that relationship existed.
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