Find the description closest to your situation. The answers are what we would actually say on the phone, including when the answer is no.
“I am 74, still have a mortgage, and the payment is eating my fixed income.”
Usually yes.
This is the case the product was built for. The mortgage is retired at closing, the payment stops permanently, and the money that was servicing it becomes yours. Two conditions: you intend to stay, and you can sustain the property taxes and insurance afterwards. If the second is shaky, ask for a LESA rather than avoiding the loan.
Unless your mortgage rate is below about 5%. Then paying it off is the wrong move and a reverse second mortgage that leaves it in place is the better structure.
“I am 63, in good health, and thinking about it for later.”
Yes, but not the way you are imagining.
Not a lump sum — a line of credit you open and leave alone. The unused portion grows at the loan's rate every year, it cannot be frozen or cancelled the way a bank HELOC can, and you are charged only on what you draw. Open at 63, touch nothing, and there is meaningfully more available at 80 than the original figure.
The catch is discipline. If you will draw it down because it is there, waiting is better, since proceeds rise with age anyway.
“My house is too big and I have been thinking about moving.”
No. Move first.
Do not spend $20,000 on a loan and then relocate in two years. Sell, and either buy outright or look at HECM for Purchase, which buys the next house with roughly half the cash and no monthly payment — one transaction, one set of closing costs.
“I want to leave the house to my children.”
Probably not, and be honest about why.
A reverse mortgage spends equity. Over twenty years most of it may be gone. There are ways to soften that — borrow less than offered, take a line of credit and leave it alone, make voluntary interest payments, look at life insurance alongside — but none of them change the direction of travel.
The question worth putting to yourself: is the house genuinely the plan, or is it a default you have never examined? Plenty of adult children would far rather their parent was comfortable. That is a conversation to have with them, not a calculation to do alone. There is a page written for them.
“Money is tight and I keep seeing the commercials.”
Slow down and name the problem first.
“Tight” covers very different situations. A mortgage payment you cannot sustain is a reverse mortgage problem. Credit card debt is usually not — converting unsecured debt into debt against your house transfers the risk onto the one asset you cannot afford to lose. Medical bills are often negotiable. Falling behind on property taxes specifically is a warning sign, because that same obligation continues after the loan and is what causes foreclosures.
Also check what you are already entitled to. Every state we serve runs senior property tax relief that goes widely unclaimed — the state pages name the programmes. Occasionally that closes the gap on its own.
“My health is not good and I may need care before long.”
Almost certainly not.
The loan becomes due once you have not lived in the home for twelve consecutive months. If a permanent move to care is realistically within a few years, you would pay full upfront costs for a short-lived benefit and your family would be selling under time pressure. Look at what care actually costs and how it would be funded, with someone whose job is that rather than lending.
“I have a decent portfolio and my adviser mentioned it.”
Yes, and your adviser is up to date.
The standby line of credit as a sequence-of-returns buffer is a legitimate and well-documented strategy: draw on the line in years the market is down so the portfolio is not sold at a loss, repay when it recovers. It has nothing to do with running out of money, and some of the most deliberate users of this product do not need the cash at all.
“Someone called and said I have been approved.”
No. Hang up.
Nobody is approved for a reverse mortgage over the phone. There is no approval without counseling, an appraisal and a financial assessment. Unsolicited calls, urgency, “this rate expires Friday”, any suggestion of investing the proceeds — those are the markers of the pitches that produced the horror stories. Check anyone who contacts you at NMLS Consumer Access.
The one-line test
Two questions decide most of it
Will you still be in this house in ten years? If no, the upfront costs will not earn back and almost nothing else matters.
Can you comfortably pay the property taxes and insurance for the rest of your life? If no, a LESA fixes it — and if nobody has offered you one, you are talking to the wrong lender.
Two yeses and it is worth a serious look. One no and it probably is not.
If you want the fuller ledger, the pros and cons are here and the unhedged downside case is here.
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.