Reverse Mortgage Counseling

Yes, counseling is required for all reverse mortgage products available today in the marketplace. All parties to the reverse mortgage loan must be counseled. Many seniors include their children in these sessions, or their trusted financial advisors. As of June, 2008, HUD has permitted counselors to charge for this service. However, they many not turn away any senior who is unable to pay.

What is Reverse Mortgage Counseling?

This is an “education session” to be sure that you completely understand all that is involved with a reverse mortgage. The counseling is done by an approved agency and there may be a cost associated, that can be reimbursed to you upon closing of your reverse loan. You can choose to have this counseling done in person, or over the phone.

Once counseling is completed, a counseling certificate is either mailed to you (if you do counseling over the phone) or given to you in person. This counseling certificate is valid for 6 months.

I will ask you at application if you have completed counseling, and if so, you can sign the certificate and give it to me at that time. I can then order your title work, appraisal, credit reports etc on your application. If you have NOT completed counseling at time of application, we can still get started in the process, but I will be unable to order the appraisal, credit report, etc.

Here is a list of HUD approved counselors:

Phone Counseling

Face-To-Face

For more counseling agencies:

http://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/hecm_agency_search.cfm