Why My Mother Got a Reverse Mortgage

My mom got her HECM reverse mortgage before I got into the business. I wasn’t even aware of her plan, so it was a bit of a surprise when she and her husband called to get my opinion about the idea.

“Honey, you're the real estate expert in the family and you know about mortgages,” she said. “What do you think about these reverse mortgages?”

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I explained that I’d been responsible for processing closings on reverse mortgages for a few years and thought they were a great financial tool.

“Well, we're thinking we need to do one,” said mom.

Both my mom and her husband had lost their spouses a few years prior, so this was the second marriage for both of them. They had both sold their homes in Orange County, CA and moved into a beautiful home on the lake in Temecula, CA, which they purchased with cash.

Unfortunately, they didn’t do quite the due diligence they should have and were hit with some unexpected repairs after closing. For one thing, the place turned out to be completely infested with termites. My husband jokes that the only reason the house was still standing was that the termites were holding hands. You could literally put your ear against the wall and hear them crunching away. It was terrible! Adding insult to injury, they also discovered a roof leak in the family room.

Unfortunately, all those repairs ended up going on to credit cards. My stepdad didn’t want to have a mortgage, so he financed the repairs with zero interest credit card offers that would periodically come in the mail. They would pay down the card as much as possible until the zero interest introductory period ran out, then transfer the balance to another zero interest credit card.

The credit card juggling worked for a while, but it eventually became very stressful and frustrating. This wasn’t the retirement lifestyle on the lake my mom had envisioned. The reverse mortgage seemed like an ideal solution because it could eliminate the credit card headache once and for all and free up cash that could be used for more enjoyable things.