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Reverse Mortgage Counseling

Reverse Mortgage Counseling

If you're a homeowner age 62 or older, a reverse mortgage can give you a way to convert home equity to cash, supplementing your income. We'll tell you what you need to know so you can make an informed choice as to whether this is right for you.

Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)

Are you considering a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) as an option to supplement your retirement income? We offer free counseling and education courses to help you make the best decisions for yourself.

Until recently there were two main ways to get cash from your home. You could sell your home and have to move, or you could borrow against your home and have to make monthly loan repayments. Now there is a third way of getting money from your home that does not require you to leave it or to make regular loan repayments.

The HECM (Home Equity Conversion Mortgage) is the only reverse mortgage insured by the federal government. HECM loans are insured by the FHA (Federal Housing Administration), which is part of the U.S. HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development).

The FHA tells HECM lenders how much they can lend you based on your age and home value. The HECM program limits your loan costs and the FHA guarantees that lenders will meet their obligations.

HUD requires consumers to meet with a reverse mortgage counselor before applying for a HECM loan.  To help consumers with all of the different types of Reverse Mortgages available in the marketplace Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Montana and Northwestern Wyoming, Inc. provides counseling to ensure you have the necessary information to make an informed decision.

HECM Eligibility

HECM loans are available in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. To be eligible for a HECM loan:

  • you and any other owners of your home must be age 62 or over and live in your home as a principal residence;

  • your home must be a single-family residence in a 1 to 4 unit dwelling, or part of a Planned Unit Development (PUD) or a HUD approved condominium. Some manufactured housing is eligible but cooperatives and most mobile homes are not,
  • your home must meet HUD’s minimum property standards, but you can use the HECM to pay for repairs that may be required to bring you up to those standards, and,
  • you must discuss the program with a counselor from a HUD approved counseling agency.

HECM Benefits

The HECM program provides the widest array of cash-advance choices. You can take your entire loan as:

  • a single lump sum of cash,
  • a credit line account of a specific dollar amount that you control, where you decide when to make cash withdrawals from this account and how much cash to withdraw, or,
  • a monthly cash advance for a specific period of time or for as long as you live in your home.

In addition you can choose any combination of these options and change your cash advance choices at any future time.

To schedule a reverse mortgage counseling session call us at 1.877.275.2227

For more information on Reverse Mortgages visit: http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/hecm/rmtopten.cfm