Should I Wait To Get A Reverse Mortgage So I Get More Money?
There are three factors that determine how much money you get when doing a reverse mortgage. In this article, we will address those.
1. Your age. You have to be at least 62 years old when qualifying for a reverse mortgage, but will being older be a benefit on how much equity you can use? If interest rates and property values remain stable, you will benefit, but I don’t think it makes sense to wait. Small increases in interest rates will have a negative impact, larger than the benefit of being a few years older.
I want to talk about the exception to what I just said. The exception: If you are 62 or older and your spouse isn’t, should you wait until they are? The answer is most definitely, “it depends”. If you are in a hardship, or times are tough enough where you feel you could lose the home, it probably makes sense to do it now. Also, if the younger spouse has plans to sell upon the passing of the older spouse, it may make sense. The concern is that if you are not on the loan and your spouse passes away, you will be required to pay off the reverse mortgage or refinance it or sell. This can obviously be bad for you. Remember this: Don’t remove a person from title to get more money. Unless you are avoiding a hardship, it just doesn’t make sense.
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. How much is your home worth? Since the loan amount is based on the value of your home, you may be better off using today’s value, rather than hoping the value will increase enough to matter over the next several years. Trying to guess what your home will be worth in three years is pretty hard to do. Several clients waited a couple years to do a loan, only to be in today’s market with lesser values than they could have ever imagined. With those kind of decreases, you may have trouble getting qualified at all.
If it works, why would you wait? What are you hoping for? If the numbers work today, just do it. Use a reverse mortgage to enhance your retirement today, with real numbers that you can use, based on today’s interest rates and values. If you would like to see what you qualify for, try our FREE reverse mortgage calculator.