American Advisors Group (AAG)

There were more costs than I expected there to be, but AAG is still better than being tied to a home equity line of credit that would take me years and years to pay off. I wanted to get rid of that financial stress. I don’t have any heirs to speak of, just nephews and nieces, and so using the equity of my home instead of scrimping and saving and praying it'll last till the pay date next payday seemed like it was time to go that way.

Anthony reassured me though that they would never sell the mortgage and that they would service it until I passed and yet, I just signed some documents yesterday, and one of them was that there was a possibility that they would sell the mortgage. So, that made me unhappy. Also, they’re using the title company that is owned 49% by the president of AAG, so I wasn’t sure I liked that because I don’t know if he would be likely to charge more than a local title company would. Even though I won’t be paying the cost because that would just be added to the principal loan amount, still, it means that I will have less equity if I ever sell the home or because I need to move somewhere else for my health. I would see until the loan closes and I'll find out whether or not it still goes as smoothly as it has been going.

I had a friend actually who had gone and done a reverse mortgage and he kept bugging me about it. Finally, I said, "You know what, I think I need it." So that's when I decided to do it. I did some research before I talked to AAG, and I wanted to make sure and go through it. I found it to be the best resolve for me. So I contacted AAG and Robert was the person I got. He has been absolutely great. He's easy to get ahold of, gave me all the answers and was thorough about it. I needed that, so that helped. He didn't push me in anything. He was very polite and told me things that I didn't know. If I didn't know what that thing was or what it was I thought I knew or I didn't know, he just made sure I understood.

I've gone through the counseling and signing the papers. The appraiser is coming tomorrow and then we'll do the final papers. I got something from my mortgage company and they're trying now to get me to go with them, but I'm not going to, because I don't want to go back into that situation. But the current balance has gone down, so that's good.

Aside from that, Jared was really good at answering all our questions. I tried to come up with as many of them as I could because I’ve heard both good and bad about reverse mortgages. In fact, I was talking to a friend the other day about it and I told her that we talked to our counselor like we were supposed to and he had no claim to any of this. He was just really good at walking me and my mom through the jargon and putting it into plain terms rather than just talking over us like some of them do so much. It felt like he was really on our side and that he was trying to do what was best for us and not just make money, which was a big selling point for my mom. We understand that they need to get something out of it, but the big sell was they wanted to help people to be able to stay in their homes.

I also liked that the rep gave us the three options for the fixed rate versus the variable interest rate. There are two types of variable interest rates and he was explaining the differences as well as what would be best for us. He didn’t try to push us into one or the other, and what he said would be best for us was the same thing that our counselor told us would be best for us. And that really made me feel good that he wasn’t trying to pull our leg. Other than that, our representative was very conscientious about what my mom’s going through. He was gonna call in one day and he called me first. Then, when I told him that she was having a really hard day, he was very understanding and just told me to let him know when he could call and talk to her.

On top of that, Discover Bank decided that they had to pay off all of my creditors like my credit cards and my student loan. That was their choice, not mine, and so, I was gonna end up with $30,000 and that was it. I was gonna have to pay them $805 a month to pay them back. With AAG, after having talked to Antoinette, “I can pay if I want to, I don't have to” kind of a thing. And I've talked to my kids and decided that AAG is a much better way to go than the other one because with the other one, I'd be in the same boat I was in. How do I save up the money that I need to save up every month to pay the big bills like the taxes and the house insurance at the end of the year? I need to put so much away. If I'd be paying the Discover one, right now it's really great, but when it got down to the to the tax bill, I wouldn't have anything put away. This is why I'm hopefully finishing up with AAG.

AAG reps are awesome. If you call, they call you right back. I feel much better working with Antoinette, especially with the notary coming out for me to sign all of that stuff, and for an actual assessor to come out and actually look at the house and take pictures. And so, I told the Discover people I didn't wanna pursue it. AAG has gotten to the point where I've signed a bunch of documents in front of the notary and they've had the assessor come out. The assessor has to do their thing and get it back over to Antoinette and then we're into the closing. So, for less than a month, we've gone a long way.

George has been exemplar in what I ask him to pull off, and I give him what he needs almost immediately. I asked him what’s the best way to get this expedited and he said that since I have given everything they requested and filled out the application, it’s already on its way. The appraisal fees were also paid so, hopefully, we’re gonna have an appraisal made on October 1st. We also had the notary over here just the other day, and she was surprised that we had all our documentation ready for her.

I used to be a mortgage processor myself back in the day, and my wife worked 14 years at a title insurance company. And everything that we’re seeing with AAG is what should be done. I’ve seen companies drag their feet and they take their time so long. But ours is running as well as we can we expect. Also, George and I both agreed, how many times we’ve seen the final settlement go sideways, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid. Him and I go back and forth almost everyday, either by emails or by phone. I notice there’s a three-hour delay because he’s out in California and we’re here in the East Coast. But I deal with all kinds of hours, so that’s not a problem. He has been very attentive and he's just been good. He said we could go as fast or as slow, and I told him we're going full throttle.

It has been a few weeks, but the hold up was on us. We had to put a roof on the house and got that done last week. We didn't want the appraisal to come out until the roof was done. The appraiser came out today and we got the appraisal done, and we're moving on from there. Everybody is on hold right now until the appraisal is turned in and they can make a decision about how much money they are willing to loan us.