[quote=HLS]. . . If a senior doesn’t have any debt other than their housing expense, they may be able to qualify for a Fannie/Freddie mortgage with SSI and take the cash out that they will need, and have low payments over time.
A 7YR ARM will offer a lower rate than a 30YR fixed but can be harder to qualify for. Depends on how much cash they need.
With a reverse OR F/F the debt remains upon death, but heirs wont lose the house as easily OR if a nursing home is involved.[/quote]
HLS, a F/F loan could take $4K or more to close. If the mom only needs a roof repair, paint, bathroom fixtures, bathroom floor, etc., she might only need a few thousand for these mat’ls. The rest is labor to install and elbow grease to clean up. Why pay to borrow money she doesn’t need?? If the heirs could get involved and help mom and perhaps contribute $1K to $2K each for these mat’ls and also get a copy of mom’s will and/or trust, this would be cheaper for everyone.
Maybe one heir who has the $$ but lives far away can visit and purchase the mat’ls and another heir who lives close and is handy could install the mat’ls or supervise them installed and do repairs or something like that.
This doesn’t seem like a case where mom needs a lot of $$ to fix these problems. This is just my .02.
