Reverse Mortgage Articles
subscribe to this page via rssMichael G. Branson (CEO ARMC)
It is very important to the senior homeowner who is applying for a reverse mortgage to know the significance of the change to the new higher margins for CMT based loans, as well as for the specialist who is serving them. The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA or Fannie Mae) has just announ...
Everbank (MetLife Annoucement)
Regardless of which option is implemented, these higher loan limits will provide a great refinance opportunity for seniors with higher value homes......
Michael Branson (CEO ARMC)
Today, President Bush signed HR 3221 into law which has many significant effects on homeowners. The Bill, in its final form, covered a number of subjects that Congress had been trying to resolve from the modernization of FHA, to foreclosure assistance for homeowners, to the shoring up for Fannie Ma...
NRMLA (reversemortgage.org)
Late yesterday, the House passed HR 3221, the “Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008,” by a floor vote of 272 (yes) to 152 (no). This House version includes amendments that were negotiated since the passage of the Senate version two weeks ago.
The Bill will now go back to the Senate for a vo...
Michael Branson (CEO ARMC)
Life doesn’t hold too many real guarantees anymore. Seniors work hard their whole lives and expect to receive a pension and often those pension funds aren’t available or the company closes and the individual is left looking for work late in life with no pension at all, starting over. Borrowers...
Michael Branson (CEO ARMC)
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke again today, this time about inflation, economic growth and the possibility of future rate hikes. A full story on the speech can be found on Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch and basically what Bernanke is saying is that although the weak dollar is driving costs up...
Michael Branson (CEO ARMC)
ATTENTION: SINCE THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED INDYMAC BANK OFFICIALS HAVE MADE THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS "Customers of IndyMac's reverse mortgage subsidiary will retain unfettered access to their funds, Bovenzi said. Reverse mortgages provide elderly homeowners with either regular payments or a line o...
Michael Branson (CEO ARMC)
On July 5th 2008, Robert Powell of the Wall Street Journal online posted an article which quotes the Chief Executive of The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Mary Schapiro, entitled “Three Warnings for Hard Times…Beware of Strategies
That Put Nest Egg at Risk”. I really must ad...
Michael Branson (CEO ARMC)
What better day to talk about obtaining your financial independence than on Independence Day?! I don’t think our forefathers ever considered the right to a reverse mortgage when framing the Bill of Rights and our Constitution, but ever since 1988 when Ronald Reagan signed the bill authorizing the...
Michael Branson (CEO ARMC)
If you have been reading the articles about jumbo or proprietary reverse mortgages available, you may be wondering what is going on. A jumbo or proprietary reverse mortgage is any program that is not the FHA, government insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM or "Hek-um") or the Federal Nation...
Michael Branson (CEO ARMC)
Many people are not aware of all the opportunities available to senior borrowers with the Reverse mortgage program. For example, did you know that HUD does not require any title seasoning or seasoning for time off the market when doing a Reverse Mortgage? What exactly does this mean to senior borr...
reversemortgage.org (NRMLA)
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a comprehensive housing package comprised of two separate bills. The first bill, H.R. 3221, has as its centerpiece, an authorization of $300 billion in FHA refinancing to help homeowners facing trouble meeting their mortgage payments. New FHA-insur...
www.reversemortgage.org (NRMLA)
HUD Permits Borrower-Paid Counseling
Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development published Mortgagee Letter 2008-12 to permit counseling agencies to charge seniors a fee for counseling services. HUD said the counseling fee should be reasonable and customary for the service provided a...
Michael Branson (CEO ARMC)
Being the age I am and having more than 32 years experience in the mortgage banking industry, I always choose fixed rate mortgages for my own financing needs. When the first fixed rate reverse mortgages came out, we received a lot of phone calls from borrowers who were very interested in also gettin...
Michael Branson (CEO ARMC)
As industry professionals, we often have an opportunity to sit in on conference calls on market trends and other things that affect reverse mortgages and the senior borrowers who get them. We were on one today that echoed something that we have been saying so it seems that it’s to a point where w...
Michael Branson (CEO ARMC)
Reverse Mortgage Loans are unlike traditional loans or forward mortgages in many ways. Even the costs are figured differently. Because a Reverse Mortgage is often paid to the borrower in monthly payments or in the form of a line of credit that the borrower can access as they choose, the origi...
Michael Branson (CEO ARMC)
I just finished reading yet another article on the internet by AP Economics writer, Martin Crutsinger, in which he states “Sales of existing homes fell to the lowest level in nearly a decade in January while the median price for a home dropped for the fifth straight month.” His article q...
Michael Branson (CEO ARMC)
Reverse Mortgages are a very good tool for many senior borrowers to enable them to access the equity in their home while never having to make another payment as long as they live in those homes. However, a Reverse Mortgage has always been a fairly expensive proposition, usually carrying a price tag...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
One of the things that we always explain to senior borrowers when they ask about reverse mortgages is that they are non-recourse loans. The next question is always, "What is a non-recourse loan?" This is a very important feature of the reverse mortgage and I want to take a moment to explain jus...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
Many senior homeowners have lived in their homes for a very long time, have no desire to move and have gotten reverse mortgages so that they can continue to live in their homes payment free for life while accessing their equity to help supply them with income or cash to meet their living needs. St...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
Reverse Mortgages are a very good tool for many senior borrowers to enable them to access the equity in their home while never having to make another payment as long as they live in those homes. However, a Reverse Mortgage has always been a fairly expensive proposition, usually carrying a price tag...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
Reverse Mortgages are not short term, hard money, bridge or balloon loans normally associated with the type of loans people are forced to get to stop a foreclosure proceeding. But for seniors aged 62 and over, a reverse mortgage can be a life-line that rescues the seniors in danger of losing t...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
I just finished reading an article about a network news program that did a negative report on reverse mortgages, citing an incident in Los Angeles of a senior borrower who was talked into buying annuities that did not mature until the year 2033 without a substantial penalty. I saw the actual N...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
I received a call from the son and daughter of a senior borrower today and they wanted to know if their mother could refinance her reverse mortgage loan. I answered them honestly that yes, she could, but had to ask why was she thinking about refinancing. The reason I asked for the borrower's m...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
You've made the decision to get a reverse mortgage and you've heard that there is no income or credit qualifying so you think you will have no issues getting your loan. All you have to do is get your counseling, sign all the paperwork and you're set, right? Not exactly. There are some things...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
Are you currently thinking about a reverse mortgage? Have you been told that with your property value, you really might be better off going with a jumbo or proprietary reverse mortgage, but you really wanted to get the government insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM or "Heck-um")? Ha...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
Did you know that if you are a senior borrower, aged 62 and over you can use a reverse mortgage to purchase a home as well as just to refinance your existing home? Many senior borrowers have heard about the benefits of paying off an existing mortgage with a reverse mortgage, that they never hav...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
As I talk to borrowers and their families, I'm often asked what restrictions there are on the use of the funds from a reverse mortgage. The answer is simple, there are no requirements or restrictions on what you can do with your money, only restrictions against what you must do with the proceed...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
I have seen a lot of good that Reverse Mortgages have done for senior borrowers. I've seen them change lives and living situations for the better. I've seen people come out of foreclosure with a reverse mortgage and never have to make another mortgage payment. But is there a time when a rev...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
Since first offering reverse mortgages, I've often been asked, "How do I/we know if a reverse mortgage is right for me/us?" This is a question that has a different answer for different people. I always start with the same first response, "The first thing I would recommend is that you seek the ...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
You've made the decision to get a reverse mortgage and now you talk to a bank or mortgage broker and the representative is telling you that you have a choice of the Government Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM or "Heck-um") or a Jumbo or "Proprietary Program". Is one better than the other?...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
Many senior borrowers who start looking into reverse mortgages are not aware of it, but there is a fixed rate Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) available. The HECM or "Heck-um" as you may hear it called, is the government insured reverse mortgage program offered by lenders and insured by ...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
Have you been considering a reverse mortgage but are just afraid of some of the negative things you've heard? There are some negative "myths" that senior borrowers have heard about this type of financing that simply aren't true and we're going to expose some of those here.
Myth #1
The Lender...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
There seems to be a new phenomenon in the mortgage world known as the reverse mortgage. The ads touting how they can improve quality of life are everywhere and if you're a homeowner, age 62 and over, you receive them in the mail almost daily. Then there are the articles warning that reverse m...
Michael Branson (CEO All Reverse Mortgage Company)
Many senior borrowers who start looking into reverse mortgages are not aware of it, but there is a fixed rate Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) available. The HECM or "Heck-um" as you may hear it called, is the government insured reverse mortgage program offered by lenders and insured by ...