Start here instead: what are you actually solving?
Every one of these is the right answer to a different question. Find your question and the product mostly picks itself.
“The mortgage payment is squeezing me.”
HECM, almost certainly. It is the only route on this page that ends an existing mortgage payment without you selling or taking on a new one. A reverse second does not help here — the payment carries on.
“I have a 3% mortgage and I am not giving it up.”
Reverse second, or a HELOC if you can qualify and can carry the payment. Both leave your first loan alone. A HECM would retire that 3% note, and at that rate it is usually a poor trade — the full explanation is here.
“I want money available if I need it, not money now.”
HECM line of credit, and it is not close. The unused portion grows at the loan's rate, it cannot be frozen or cancelled the way a bank HELOC can, and you are charged only on what you actually draw. Open it early, leave it alone. This is the most underused feature in the entire category.
“My house is worth $2 million.”
Jumbo reverse, probably — a HECM stops counting value at $1,249,125. But price both. Between roughly $1.2M and $1.8M they land closer together than people expect, and the HECM brings FHA insurance and the growing credit line with it.
“I am 58.”
Reverse second or a proprietary reverse — both start at 55. A HECM is closed until 62. Waiting is not purely a loss, since proceeds rise with age, but you do not have to wait.
“My income is impossible to document.”
Any of the reverse products, or an equity investment. None of them run a conventional income test. This is the situation reverse mortgages were built for.
“The house is too big and too expensive to run.”
Downsize. Selling usually produces more money than any loan and leaves you with no debt at all. It is the option people resist hardest, often for perfectly good reasons — the neighbours, the grandchildren fifteen minutes away. Those belong in the decision. But if you have been thinking about moving anyway, do that first. And if you want to move and have no payment, look at HECM for Purchase, which does both in one transaction.
“My daughter thinks this is a terrible idea.”
She may be right, and she may be working from the version of this product that existed in 2005. This page is written for her — the questions worth asking, what she is not liable for, and the warning signs of a pitch worth walking away from. Families who read the same explanation together argue about it far less afterwards.
“Nothing is wrong. I just keep seeing the ads.”
Do nothing. Genuinely. Equity is not a wasting asset that has to be extracted, and having it intact if you need care later is a sound plan. The question is never "could I qualify" — it is "what specific problem am I solving, and is this the cheapest way to solve it." With no answer to the first half, there is no need for the second.
One more variable: where you live
The comparison above is federal. On top of it, your state may add protections, and it certainly changes the property tax obligation that outlives every one of these products. What differs in each of the eight states we serve.
Why this page lists things we do not sell
Because you are going to find them anyway, and a comparison that omits the free option and the bank's option is not a comparison. If a HELOC is right for you, take the HELOC. We would rather be the people who told you than the people who did not.
What this estimate is, and what it is not
These figures are an illustration for planning only — not a loan offer, not a commitment to lend, and not a guarantee of what you will receive. Your real numbers depend on a completed appraisal, the expected interest rate on the day your FHA case number is assigned, your existing mortgage payoff, and a HUD financial assessment. A reverse mortgage is a loan that must be repaid, not a government benefit. You remain responsible for property taxes, homeowners insurance and upkeep, and the loan can become due if you stop meeting those obligations.