There are currently three types of reverse products offered by lenders: the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA’s) Home Equity Conversion (HECM) program; the Fannie Mae Home Keeper program’s reverse mortgage; and a lender’s own proprietary reverse loan product.

To be eligible for a HUD reverse mortgage, FHA requires that the borrower:

• is a homeowner, 62 years of age or older;
• owns their home outright, or has a low mortgage balance that can be paid off at the closing with proceeds from the reverse loan; and
• must live in their home.

All loan reverse loan products are complex and HECM and Home Keeper products require that consumers receive counseling before taking them out. MBA strongly recommends that all consumers carefully evaluate their finances before obtaining a reverse loan. In doing so, consumers may wish to use the AARP Reverse Mortgage Calculator on the AARP Web site: http://www.rmaarp.com/.

Additionally, persons interested in obtaining information about reverse mortgages may contact the Housing Counseling Clearinghouse on 1-800-569-4287 to obtain the name and telephone number of a HUD-approved counseling agency and a list of FHA approved lenders within their area. You can find the name of a HUD approved housing counseling agency on the HUD Web site (http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/hcc/hcs.cfm?filtersvc=hec&filtermultistate=yes
You may also wish to view the HUD list of approved lenders http://www.hud.gov/ll/code/llslcrit.cfm.