If you are senior who is thinking about getting an FHA reverse mortgage, you are required to attend a counseling session with a HUD-approved counselor prior to getting a reverse mortgage.
The counseling session can be done at your home, in a group setting, or even over the phone and usually lasts between an hour and two hours.
Some of the questions that you can expect the reverse mortgage counselor to answer:
- What is a reverse mortgage?
- What are the eligibility requirements for a reverse mortgage?
- How does a reverse mortgage impact your equity in your home?
- What are the fees of a reverse mortgage?
- What are the options in how the funds from a reverse mortgage can be paid to you?
- How will the reverse mortgage be repaid?
- What is the impact of a reverse mortgage on your social security benefits?
- What is the impact of a reverse mortgage on your heirs?
You should also expect the counselor to provide you with a reverse mortgage calculator of some sort to help you determine the cost of your reverse mortgage loan.
I haven’t seen a situation where a senior came away from a reverse mortgage counseling session with more questions than they went in with — which means by and large, it appears to be working! These HUD-approved counselors seem to be a good tool for seniors to get their questions answered from an independent third party for a reasonable fee (the counseling session typically costs about $125).
