Reverse Mortgage~~~Why would one consider this?

[tsquared]

i dont see a point in this unless you have no family to leave your house too, however if you live long enough wont you basically be paying them rent......
Yea i know i am stupid, that has been proven, but something just doesn't make sense on this idea...........

[cpbaby]

If you own your house outright, you have no heirs/dependants, and you are old and in the need of money, it can be a good idea. They basically pay you for your house a month at a time. If you outlive the payments, then you live there till you die. If you dont, they get it cheap OR an heir shows up and has the option to sell the house and pay back what they paid you.


OR, thats what I understand it to be. I could be wrong(and so often are!).

[dangerousfem]

yep.. its a loan you take out on your house.. but don't have to pay bak till you o longer live there. If you move, or die.. then the house is sold and the loan paid back.. your heirs get the rest if you have died.. if you moved, then you get the rest once the loan is payed.

[dv8grl]

I could see it making sense to alot of people. Others not so much.

[Kelsey1224]

I think it depends on the situation...and having children has nothing to do with it. My husband and I are quite comfortable. Hopefully, we will be able to leave our children 'something'. However, I feel absolutely no sense of obligation to do so. My job was to 'raise them up and send them out' to be able to support themselves and be a contribution to society. It isn't my job to provide an inheritance for them.

Medical costs for the elderly can be quite onerous. If someone requires long-term care, that can completely debilitate one's savings and retirement. Using equity in one's home makes total sense if there are no other resources available.

In many situations, one's home is one's primary or only asset. To use it to pay for expenses, while still residing in it, makes total sense to me.

[pepperpot]

I recently discussed this with a relative to look into if it makes 'sense' for them.

Their parent's health is declining and is up there in age and she is needing to go to an assisted living environment. She has a home and children. Instead of selling her home and having the nursing home/establishment/etc. take her 'estate' besides selling the home in a depressed market.

It might benefit them to rent out her home, make up the difference in expenses for the assisted care living with a reverse mortgage.......and then sell the house later when the market changes......:shrug

Lots of scenarios for a reverse mortgage make sense.....:agree (but not all)

[jedmatters]

i dont see a point in this unless you have no family to leave your house too, ...........

Having heirs has nothing to do with it.
No one is obligated to leave property to any family member, and should not feel that way.
I refuse to have people wait around for me to die to collect my stuff. That is just wrong.
We worked hard for what we have, and no one DESERVES to be in my will.
If I needed to pay medical bills, or living expnses as I age: I would not hesitate to get one.
My children will be on their own, with families. I will have done my job of seeing them functioning adults. My house belongs to my husband and I, and will serve it usefullness however it needs to.

[dinosmom]

When my father passed away, my Mom was so worried that she was going to lose her house. I know she looked into a reverse mortgage. That was before she realized that my father had scrimped and saved and invested so that she would be nicely taken care of after his death. But if he hadnt, she probably would have had to do the reverse mortgage.

[flute]

i don't comprehend it but it sounds stupid to me, too.

Even though a parents job is to raise them I can't see giving tens of thousands of dollars to some company when I could give it to my children. (in some of yours cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars)

~ But that is JMO

[cpbaby]

i don't comprehend it but it sounds stupid to me, too.

Even though a parents job is to raise them I can't see giving tens of thousands of dollars to some company when I could give it to my children. (in some of yours cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars)

~ But that is JMO



But you ARENT "giving" it to some company. You are using the equity in your home to help you out in your older years. While getting the money from my MILs estate will be nice and all, a reverse mortgage would have helped her have a better standard of living while she was alive.

[vicky122]

I think if it was something I had to do I would.

[tsquared]

LOL i realize you have to do what you have to do to survive and thinking of your kids and what will happen to them after you are gone will always be in someones mind as long as there is good family ties. We all want the best for our kids and sometimes leaving them the house is a way of showing our love for what they have done for us growing up. Everyone is different, however i see with all the government and private help out there it can be done.........