We buy houses in Florida. During the 1960s, a new type of mortgage loan came out for homeowners looking to access their house equity. This new type of mortgage became popular for fulfilling a need senior borrows had. As professional homebuyers in Florida, we have known many aging homeowners who wanted to have a way to stay in their homes, and reverse mortgage loans became the perfect solution to help them do that. However, circumstances change, and borrowers found the need to move away for one reason or another. Some borrowers needed to move into a nursing home or assisted living. Others found it would be best to live closer to their family or just another location altogether. Whatever the circumstances, maybe, if you’re facing a similar situation, you’re probably asking questions like, “can I sell my house with a reverse mortgage?” or ”how does a reverse mortgage work?”
Well, you came to the right place to help answer these questions and get more information about the reverse mortgage process.
What Is A Reverse Mortgage In Florida?
A reverse mortgage or otherwise known as a home equity conversion mortgage (HECM), is a special type of home loan only for homeowners that are 62 and older. If you’re not entirely familiar with what a reverse mortgage is, you’re not alone. A reverse mortgage loan is like a traditional mortgage, allowing homeowners to borrow money using their house as collateral for the loan. Similar to a conventional mortgage, when you take out a reverse mortgage loan, the title to your property remains in your name.
How Does A Reverse Mortgage Work In Florida?
How a reverse mortgage works is different from a traditional loan because you don’t make monthly mortgage payments like a home loan. The HECM is repaid when the borrower no longer lives in the home. Fees and interest are added to the loan balance every month, and the balance grows. Homeowners with a reverse mortgage loan must pay property taxes and homeowners insurance, use the property as their primary residence and keep their home in good condition. The balance of the loan must be paid if the homeowner passes away, once the homeowner moves out, or when the home is sold.
Can You Sell A House In Florida With A Reverse Mortgage?
At this point, you’re probably wondering can you sell a house with a reverse mortgage? And the answer is YES, you can. You probably should go over a few details, like what your reverse loan payoff is and how you would like to go about selling your home. But the good news is that selling a house with a reverse mortgage is very similar to a traditional home sale.
Steps For Selling A Property In Florida With A Reverse Mortgage
On the bright side, selling a house with a reverse mortgage is similar to selling a home in general, only with a few differences. Below is a typical breakdown of what the process may involve.
- Make contact with your reverse mortgage lender and verify how much you owe on your loan, which should include any money you have received to date, the interest that’s been charged, and any other lender fees. Check if there are any additional fees. Get the full payoff quote in writing.
- Decide how you want to sell the property, with a real estate agent, by owner, or to a home buyer.
- You can choose to work with a real estate attorney to ensure that your reverse mortgage loan’s full payment is handled correctly.
- Once your house sells, make sure that the reverse mortgage is paid in full from the profits and that your reverse mortgage account is closed. You get to keep the remaining amount.
This process is very similar to selling your home with a traditional mortgage, but it is good to know if there is anything different with a reverse mortgage loan to be aware of.
Reverse Mortgage Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) In Florida
Do I Need To Let My Lender Know I’m Selling The FL House?
Yes, you should let them know, and while doing so, confirm the properties payoff in writing in a formal payoff quote. A payoff quote is the approximate amount of money that is necessary to repay your reverse mortgage loan in full and close your account.
What Happens To The Money Once I Sell My FL House?
When your house sells, the sale proceeds first go towards paying off your reverse mortgage balance. Also, if any liens are on your property, those will be paid and any fees associated with the sale of your home. Once all of those things are paid for, the remaining balance is yours to keep.
Are There Any Penalties When Selling A FL Home With A Reverse Mortgage?
There should not be any penalties for selling a home and repaying your reverse mortgage loan. It doesn’t hurt to check with your lender, though, when you go in to get your payoff quote.
How To Sell A House In FL With A Reverse Mortgage
Now that we’ve gone over all the technicalities of selling a house with a reverse mortgage, maybe it’s been a while since you’ve sold a home and want a refresher on the process. There are a couple of ways you can go about selling a house with a reverse mortgage loan. Here are the three most common ways to sell a home and their pros and cons.
Sell With A Real Estate Agent In FL
Using a real estate agent to sell your home does take a lot of work off your shoulders but comes with a price. Typically realtors charge either a flat fee or a percentage of your home’s sale, which is usually 6% for their services. So if you were to sell your home for $350,000, your agent stands to make $21,000. And that rate doesn’t change for an agent working hard to get your home sold or seemingly showing little effort.
Though an agent handles most aspects of selling your home, if any repairs or renovations are needed, it will fall to you or your family to hire a professional and pay for those renovations to be made. All while paying property taxes, utilities, homeowners insurance, and maintenance.
In the end, you may not make back any money from the updates you’ve made, and it does not guarantee that your house will sell quickly.
Sell By Owner In FL
If you were to sell-by-owner, all of a real estate agent’s responsibilities would fall to you to cover. An agent’s job entails listing the property, creating a marketing plan, setting the marketing strategy in motion, hosting open houses, vetting prospective buyers, negotiating, and lots of paperwork.
Though it may seem you would save on the realtor commission by selling by owner, you will pay for it with your time.
And let’s not forget you will still need to do repairs and renovations to the home, which can be costly.
Potential buyers usually require a home inspection to be done and repairs to be made before they get mortgage approval. And once you go to all that trouble, the buyer still could encounter loan approval issues.
Sell To A FL Cash Home Buyer
A third option is to sell to a cash home buyer like Florida Cash Home Buyers. A cash home buyer could be a single investor or a group of investors that purchase houses with cash. When selling to a cash buyer, they can close a lot quicker than a traditional buyer since they are not waiting on bank financing. Another advantage of selling to cash home buyers is that they purchase homes in as-is condition. Saving you time and money on costly home renovations. When selling a house with a reverse mortgage, the process is very easy compared to the other ways to sell a home.
Homebuyers are very helpful if you want to sell quickly and avoid making costly repairs in a house you won’t be living in anymore. Since their process doesn’t involve real estate agents, there aren’t any agent fees or commissions. Homebuyers usually help pay closing costs and even work with you on your closing and moving timeframe. Working with a homebuyer takes the stress and hassle out of the process.
If you still aren’t sure if selling to a home investor is for you, below are 8 reasons to sell a house with a reverse mortgage for cash in Florida.
Top 8 Reasons Why You Can Sell A House In Florida With A Reverse Mortgage For Cash
1. It’s More Convenient When You Sell Your Reverse Mortgage House In Florida For Cash
Almost 1,000 people a day move to Florida, and its population has now reached over 20 million.
When you’re ready for a little peace and quiet, you may be asking, “Can you sell a house with a reverse mortgage for cash?”
The answer: a resounding, YES!
In fact, a cash sale will save you a lot of headaches that you’d have to put up with if you worked to sell your house on your own or with a long-term realtor.
This way, you can sell on your own schedule without having to race home to show your place to potential buyers – or without having to spend the time and money to spruce up your home.
Cash buyers buy your house as-is!
2. The Sale Of The Reversed Loan Property In FL Happens Faster In Cash
There are a million potential setbacks when it comes to buying and selling houses. But if you go the cash route, you avoid waiting on buyer financing.
Companies that say yes to those who want to sell your house for cash in Florida already have all the money they need for the sale set aside.
This way, you know that the sale is going to be completed in a matter of days, not months. Many cash buyers close out the deal in about seven days.
When you’re ready to go, and go now, go for a cash option.
3. The Buyer Won’t Hound You After The Sale Of The House In Florida
One of the big reasons many people say to themselves, “I’m going to sell my reverse mortgage house fast for cash”? Because they know doing so won’t open them up to a host of problems and calls from the buyer after the sale.
Cash buyers are agreeing to purchase the house as-is, meaning that they won’t come after you later saying you need to pay for repairs or damage they’ve discovered.
They’re more than happy to take the risks of buying your house as it looks on the day you want to sell it.
4. You Don’t Lose Any Money On FL Realtors
Sure, you might think that hiring a real estate agent to help you sell your reverse mortgage home will be easy, but once you start seeing all the time and fees that come with that process, you’ll likely wish you’d gone another route.
Selling your home for cash means that not only do you avoid having to fork over a huge part of your profits to your realtor’s commission but also that the process of selling will be short and sweet.
You also don’t have to attend yet another lunch meeting you’d really rather avoid.
5. You Don’t Need To Pick Up The Phone And Answer Ads From Florida Buyers
If you’ve thought about acting as your own real estate agent and listing your property yourself, you may want to think through that process again.
Though it might seem like less of a hassle at first, you’ll be saying, “I wish I’d had the guts to sell my reverse mortgage house for cash!” instead.
When you list your house online or in print, you’ll have to field calls from all sorts of potential buyers.
While some may be genuinely interested, more are just time-wasters that are trying to figure out what their own homes might be worth.
Selling for cash means you avoid contact with all these types of people, so you can focus on the new life you’re creating for yourself now that you’ve sold your old home.
6. You Can Protect Your Privacy In Your FL House
Maybe your nosy neighbors have something to do with why you want to move as quickly as possible, or maybe you’re leaving because of a personal matter.
When you decide to say, “sell my reverse mortgage house for cash!” you can get up and get out, no questions asked.
By the time those pesky neighbors find out your house is on the market, it will actually have already sold – and you’ll likely already be out of the neighborhood.
You don’t have to deal with any of their questions.
7. You’re Saving Serious Money When You Sell For Cash In FL
We hinted at this earlier on our list, but it’s not just time you’re saving when you avoid having to pay for things like paint jobs, home staging, and more – it’s also money.
Since your home isn’t going to sit on the market for months during a cash deal, you won’t need to spend any profits you might have made into repairing the house that you’re leaving anyway.
In the end, because of the costs saved, you’ll still likely make more or at least equal money as you would on a traditional market when you go the cash route.
8. You’re Avoiding The Complications That Happen With Buyer Loans In FL
When you’re working within the traditional real estate market, you know that, if loans happen at all, they can often happen later than promised.
Often, this pushes back the entire buying and selling process, delaying your move, your money, and your life.
But if you’re thinking, “I just want to sell my reverse mortgage house for cash,” no one is going to change their minds at the last second, and you won’t have to deal with the back and forth of the banks.
Get an offer right away.
Sell My House In Florida
If you’ve had enough of the craziness that is Florida for now, selling your reverse mortgage home for cash may be a great option for you.
If you think you need to sell your house in Florida fast, then you may need us. We at Florida Cash Home Buyers are local Florida home buyers and we offer cash for houses in FL. We’re helping local homeowners have a quick and hassle-free sale! If your Florida house qualifies, we can make you a quick and fair cash offer.
This is a very well written article. The whole reverse mortgage thing seems to trip a lot of folks up. I found you guys when I was searching for Florida companies that I can refer some of my clients to. I am in Washington and get some people in Florida that want to sell their house and I am not interested in purchasing there. Maybe we can work together.
Hi Keith, thank you for the compliments 🙂 Sure, we’d be happy to help out. If you have anyone looking to sell down here we’d be happy to connect with them and we’ll work out something with you for the referral.