Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas Reverse Mortgage Success Stories
Plano TX
For 88-year-old Betty Marshall, a blue scooter symbolizes financial freedom. She bought the scooter with money she and her husband, Freddy, received from their reverse mortgage lender after obtaining a Texas reverse mortgage. She still seems awestruck by the fact that they receive money from, instead of sending checks to, their lender.
“Every tenth of the month, we get a check,” she says, “And we don’t have to worry about paying back.”
Instead of building equity, the Marshalls are taking equity out of their home. They keep the title to the property and the bank is repaid with interest when they move or die.
Betty says that she felt resigned to her traditional wheelchair and life within the walls of her home, before the couple secured a HUD reverse mortgage. “My insurance company wouldn’t cover a scooter,” she says, “(but) I am now able to visit my loved ones and return to a social lifestyle with my husband.”
The Marshalls recently summed up their feelings about the national reverse mortgage program, saying, “We honestly feel like we have a new lease on life in our late 80s. Who would have ever thought?”
Dayton OH
Reverse mortgages are being used to enhance the lifestyles of more and more retirees. For some, the loan simply enables them to make ends meet in tough economic times. This was the case for 75-year old Shirley Parker of Dayton, Ohio. “I could just barely keep up,” she said of life before the reverse mortgage loan.
Parker, a widow, said that making her monthly mortgage payments consumed most of her Social Security check, sometimes not leaving enough money left for both gasoline and groceries. By obtaining a HUD reverse mortgage, she paid off her Dayton home and established a line of credit. That, she says, has made a huge difference in her quality of life.
“I’m much more relaxed,” Shirley said. “I can sleep at night.”
Hershey PA
Robert Mayfield thought he had run out of options. The 76-year-old widower was in poor health, and in danger of losing his home because of escalating debt. His roof leaked, his well was contaminated, and his washing machine was broken.
“I knew I was losing the house and it was going to be sold for taxes. I lay awake in bed all night, thinking, ‘Oh God, Where am I going to go? What’s going to become of me?’” said Mayfield, who has no living children and lives off $1,088 a month in social security benefits.
Then the Hershey, PA man attended a reverse mortgage seminar and received reverse mortgage information. After hearing the reverse mortgage facts, he applied for one of the loans within a month.
“This mortgage has given me the right to stay independent,” says Mayfield. He had to sign an agreement to stay in his home for four years, a condition that was no issue for him. “Suits me. I told them when I leave this house, I’m going feet first and with a tag on my toe. I love my spot.”
HUD, jumbo, and HECM reverse mortgages are increasingly a salvation for seniors with health and retirement incomes that have fallen in tandem with the stock market and the economy.