Can you imagine turning 62, or 65, or 69 years old and someone shaking your hand, handing you enough money to live well for the rest of your life, and saying, good job! A reverse mortgage is like this. Imagine someone telling you that they have good news and they have bad news. The bad news is that the moment that you die, someone is going to take your home away from you and your heirs. The good news is that you can have the equity in your home back right now, with no strings attached, to spend as you see fit. I do not know about you, but all I heard was that I could have the equity in my home in cash and I could keep it without paying it back.
Sounds Like A Good Deal
Every company should explain the reverse mortgages pros and cons that you consider in detail. There are a lot of pros and only a few reverse mortgages disadvantages. The few disadvantages are whoppers but… So are the advantages. You can get your equity out of your home, often hundreds of thousands of dollars for a fee up front and then you never have to pay it back. That sounds like a good deal.
Don’t Drop Dead On Their Account
It is not all sunshine and playful puppies though. Once you get a reverse mortgage, you could live to be 120 years old and the interest alone could eclipse the equity several times over. The reverse mortgages pros and cons do not mention that the company would prefer that you drop dead in a year or two, but they do. One of the biggest reverse mortgage disadvantages is a real whopper. You have to pay for the mortgage insurance that covers such an infinitesimal happenstance by paying premiums every month. You will need to figure that in to any monthly loan payment that you receive.
The Lockout Whopper
The final insult in the reverse mortgages pros and cons fine print is the lockout. You have to avoid the companies that put a clause in your contract stating that if you are gone from your home for a set amount of time, it reverts to them to pay back the loan. This means if you are hospitalized, you will need to drag your sorry tail home within that time period or you will have no home to return to when you do recover. That definitely qualifies as the reverse mortgage disadvantages number one and it is a whopper.