subject: Reverse-Mortgages: How To Prepare For One [print this page] Reverse-Mortgages: How To Prepare For One
To get a reverse mortgage, you have to be at least 62 years of age. However, you can start preparing at any time to get a reverse mortgage, even if you are older than 62 it is not too late to start preparing since the older you are when you get a reverse mortgage, the better of a deal you will get since you will have lived more of your life before getting the loan. The idea is that you do not live longer than the term of the loan of the reverse mortgage since lenders cannot pay themselves back until after they have sold your home, and they cannot sell the house until after the last homeowner has either passed away or moved out.
It is also not too early to start preparing for a reverse mortgage either since to qualify for a reverse mortgage, you have to either own your house outright (with no more payments needed to pay off your house), or you will need to have enough equity in your home to not only pay off the rest of your house, but to have enough to live on as well, or at least enough to help support yourself since that is the purpose of getting a reverse mortgage loan in the first place. It is therefore important to start working on paying off your home now so that when you are 62 years of age or older, you can qualify for a reverse mortgage.
Once you are old enough to qualify for a reverse mortgage, it is a good thing (if you can) to wait until interest rates are low before applying for a reverse mortgage, that way you will be paying a lower interest rate. It is also a good idea to make sure your home will even qualify for a reverse mortgage. Most homes do qualify, but if you live in a mobile home that was built more than 30 years ago, you do not own the land on which it sits, and it is not built on a foundation, you may want to move if you want to be eligible for a reverse mortgage later on down the road because a home like that would not qualify. However, some townhomes and condos may qualify, so it could not hurt to look into seeing if yours would qualify for later down the road.
