Know Anything About Reverse Mortgages?

My great aunt lives out west and called me yesterday to discuss reverse mortgages and to be frank with you, I don’t know a whole lot about them. Just like many of you, I have seen the commercials on TV and have seen ads about them in various newspapers, but other than that…I have never personally educated myself about them.

My great uncle passed away almost 5 years ago and since that time, auntie has been struggling to pay the bills. From what she told me, their house is totally paid off, but the amount of money coming in every month, doesn’t cover all of her current living expenses.

Now that my uncle has been dead for several years, she cashed in his investments and has wiped out their joint savings account. She doesn’t live the high life at all and all of this money has been for her living expenses. I feel really bad for her.

Anyway, she called me to ask about these reverse mortgage things that she keeps hearing about, so I got online earlier today to see what I could find out about them. I read a lot of positive things about them, but also some negative things.

Personally, I don’t know anyone that has done a reverse mortgage, so I wanted to ask all of you if you know anything about it or if you have personally done one? What was your experience with it? Was it a positive one or a negative one? Was the process applying for one an easy one or difficult?

For those of you who never done one, would it be something you would consider if you were put into the same position as my great aunt? Are you aware of any other options that my great aunt might be able to consider to avoid this?

I would love to hear your honest opinions about reverse mortgages if you have them. Any tips and/or suggestions would be appreciated. Please leave your thoughts, opinions and comments in our blog’s comment form below. Thanks!