Tag Archives: real estate loans

If I Wait To Do My Reverse Mortgage, Will I Get More Money?

We will address the three factors of a reverse mortgage that determine that amount of money that is available to you in this article.

1. Your age. You probably already know that you need to be at least 62 years old if you want to do a reverse mortgage, but does it make sense to wait until you are older to get more money? In my opinion, it does not pay to wait to get older. Interest rates may go up, and that will affect your available equity more than your age, but more on that in a minute.

The prior paragraph has an exception. If there is a spouse under 62 years old, but you qualify, should you wait until everyone is old enough? I can definitely say “it depends”. If there is a hardship like potentially losing your home or needing a sum of money for medical expenses, it can make sense to just do the loan. Another reason to not wait is if the spouse is planning to move upon your passing so they can live near family. By taking a person off title and doing a reverse mortgage, you run the risk of leaving them without a home. They will need to refinance or sell the home since they weren’t on the reverse mortgage. Please remember: It doesn’t usually make sense to remove a person from title just to get more money, unless there is a hardship being avoided.

2. The interest rates. Interest rates are at an all time low. Fixed rates are in the low 5’s. An interest rate hike of a percent or more could mean thousands of dollars less that you receive. Do you want to gamble with what the rates will be in 3 or 4 years?

3. What your home is worth. The value of your home is what your loan amount is based on. So if you are hoping that values will go up enough to matter, you might be better off using today’s value. Guessing what the home will be worth 3 years down the road is pretty hard to do. I have plenty of clients that wanted to wait a couple of years and all that happened is the values of their properties have decreased. If you’re lucky you may still qualify.

If it works, why continue waiting? What are you hoping for? If the numbers work today, just do it. You can use a reverse mortgage to start living your retirement today, with real numbers that you can use, based on today’s information. If you would like to see what you qualify for, try our FREE reverse mortgage calculator.