Advice And Articles

There are several items in the ‘small print’ of reverse mortgages worth discussing – that I often get questions about. These include: maintaining your property, home insurance, paying property taxes and the usage of the home. I’m not going to look at things around penalties, fees, interest rates and so on – these are more […]

Penalties – for paying back the reverse mortgage balance – are one aspect of a reverse mortgage that work very differently to a regular mortgage. Even if you don’t intend to pay it back (you plan on living in your home forever), you should review this information just for informational & educational purposes – just […]

A reverse mortgage can be a great way to replace income during retirement, or help pay bills when a pension or savings isn’t enough – the money from the reverse mortgage can be used for any purpose: to repair a home, to pay for in-home care, to deal with an emergency, or simply to cover […]

If you’re like many homeowners I talk to, you might be a bit confused as to how you qualify for a reverse mortgage and what exactly impacts how much you can get. Reverse mortgages are advertised as ‘up to 55%’ but really this should be ‘10% to 55%’. While income and credit score are less […]

Many people find themselves in the situation where they are deciding between reverse mortgages and a Home Equity Line Of Credit (HELOC). So we thought we would take a look at the pros and cons of both and how you can combine both into a product that we call the ‘Reverse Mortgage Line Of Credit (RM-HELOC)‘. […]

For this month, we wanted to highlight another recent reverse mortgage deal. In this story we will showcase a deal where: 1.  A reverse mortgage was used to help the kids buy their first home 2.  There was absolutely zero loss of equity due to the way it was setup  (Names and client information have […]

There is little doubt that reverse mortgages are one of the most misunderstood financial products in Canada. You might be wondering: where does this misunderstanding come from? Well we already know the answer, it is very simple.  This misunderstanding comes from the U.S.A. We have talked about this many times before and the fact that […]

Before I examine the alternatives to a reverse mortgage, I should reveal that I think is a fantastic product, especially in today’s age where many people find themselves to be ‘house rich’ but ‘cash poor’. But do I think it the best solution for absolutely everyone?  Of course not. Are there alternatives out there?  Yes. Are the […]

Reverse mortgage rates and ‘what are your rates’ are very common questions that we get. The problem is that rates are particular to an individual. This is actually also the case for a traditional mortgage – just that most people don’t know this and many sites play a ‘bait and switch’ type game by advertising […]

Quite often I get asked what the implications are for taxes and Government benefits on taking out a reverse mortgage in Canada. The basic overview of this – and one of key advantages of reverse mortgages in Canada – is that the borrowed funds are not considered taxable income. Unlike other sources of income, such […]

Quite often the decision about whether or not to get a reverse mortgage involves choosing between this and a Home Equity Line Of Credit (often called a ‘HELOC’). Well we believe we have come up with the perfect solution to this debate. You can watch the video version of this where I’ll walk you through […]

A commonly asked question I get is ‘What happens at the end of a reverse mortgage?’ It makes sense – it can be worrying to not know what you’re leaving behind and how things will be handled. Another regular question is ‘how do lenders make money on a reverse mortgage if there are no payments?’ […]

If you’re confused about fixed vs variable reverse mortgage rates and how terms work (which are usually 1 year, 2 year, 3 year or 5 year), then this is the article for you. Whether you’re looking at a CHIP reverse mortgage or another reverse mortgage product – you’ll get the info you need in this […]

Like many folks, there is no doubt that you probably have questions about reverse mortgages. They are a fairly complicated and difficult to understand mortgage product. In this article I’ll walk you through some of the most frequently asked questions that I get about reverse mortgages in Canada. I’ll go through the 5 most common […]

Reverse mortgages have been around for over 400 years – with the CHIP reverse mortgage being the first introduced to Canada – yet they are still often misunderstood in Canada. In order to address the misconceptions, it is useful to examine the history of reverse mortgages and how they have evolved over time. 400 Years […]

In  this article we thought we would outline the real pros and cons of a reverse mortgage – updated with the new reverse mortgage rules and lenders. Like any financial decision, there are both advantages and disadvantages that need to be considered. As the leading specialists in Canada, we believe in objectively showing you both […]