Finance of America Reverse Reviews

One of the things I feared in starting the inquiry into reverse mortgage was that I would be, or feel to be, pressured to move forward even if I didn't feel ready. I felt no pressure from Robert in any way. He answered my questions and explained things as many times as I needed him to for me to feel comfortable with my decision. Robert was easily accessible to me at all times. If I left him a message, he promptly returned my call. He almost literally held my hand every step of the way, explaining every new form or process as we went along. I thoroughly enjoyed each interaction with Robert. He was easy to talk to. I never felt intimidated or like he was talking down to me, no matter how crazy my questions might have appeared. I always felt that he not only heard my concerns, but also had my best interest at heart. That is very rare in most business transactions, in my experience.

All of the folks I met as a result of applying for this loan were friendly, helpful and considerate. That includes Julie, the loan processor, Darryl **, who did my loan application and closing, and even the man who did the home appraisal. I would recommend Finance of America, and Robert ** in particular, to anyone needing your services. You all made everything easy and comfortable. Thank you.

The process, however, can be very tedious. Because it's going to be a reverse mortgage, there were an awful lot of paperwork and an awful lot of things that were hidden that I did not even know about. So, it was something that was a little bit more cumbersome than I thought, but I should have expected it. I had a catastrophe I was dealing with down in Florida, and if indeed I'd ever need something to tap into, it would be them.

I don't see it too much different than doing any other company other than the fact that they are not a diversified company. I had done research on some several companies, and the rates are relatively the same. There's a few minor difference on policy, but pretty much everybody is the same in that area. Finance of America Reverse only concentrates on reverse mortgages, and I found that more appealing. And, also, they have offices here in South Florida.

The only thing that I wasn’t crazy about was that everything was a go, and then, at the last minute, the underwriter came back and said that I had to show a proof of employment for the last six months. I said that I just changed my job, and hadn’t been working for six months. They replied that if that was the case, I would have to give them my social security because that will be my proof of income, and I told them that I did have proof of income. So, the good thing was that I did give them my social security, and I was able to treat my job as a part time thing. So, it worked out better. However, Finance of America’s rates were a little higher. When I talked with AAG, they gave me an interest rate that was a percent and a half lower, but they had a higher closing cost. Finance of America, on the other hand, didn’t give me a closing cost.

However, they messed up our insurance. Somehow, our insurance got dropped because they wanted it changed into their name. I don't know if it was the insurance company's issue or the explanation of the mortgage officer, but we ended up with our house insurance being canceled because of a call that was made by someone at FAR. Other than that, everything was great. The reverse mortgage is going to help us, though I don't understand why it says our loan is $225,000.

I liked how they explained everything to me, and how everything would come down to what I needed to know about having a reverse mortgage. They didn't leave out anything and they made sure I understood everything. They had papers that I needed to sign and they gave me days to read through it. And if there were any questions that I wanted to ask them, they were very much available for me to ask them and get the answers that I needed. The loan officer would get back in touch with me not even in 12 hours. Plus obtaining the mortgage was very easy. Working with FAR has impacted my life for the betterment of it. I'm very satisfied with everything.

Looking around I realized that they all have to basically stick to the same guides and got rules. The only difference is going to be how much closing cost type stuff they've got. And from what Finance of America indicated it was going to be about as low as you can get. The biggest problem for me during the application was we had to carve out five acres. I wished I could have done the whole thing with all 60 acres. But nobody wants to do that. That means I had to go in and get the surveyor to carve it out. And then, that added change things with the county as far as our land parcel was concerned. That part of it was a pain. But as far as Finance of America is concerned it really wasn't a problem. If I've been a normal homeowner with just a lot and a house it would have been a snap.

I actually applied with him twice. The first time around, to my rude surprise, they did not value the home as much as I wanted. The place that we live is unbelievable but the person who did the real estate assessment, in my opinion, didn't take into account the uniqueness of our place with the changes that we made. And we didn't get as much as we wanted. And so I said, "Well, based on that, I'm going to hold off for a year and go ahead and make the improvements to my home that I was going to make with the reverse mortgage. And see if that could up things and so forth."

People warned me about that specifically that I'm not going to get my money out of it and all those kinds. But since I'm going to use the money to upgrade anyway, I might as well go ahead and do it and hope for the best. So the first time we expired the six months thing so we had to reapply. And fortunately we were able to get it in before the changes to the program. And all along, the same guy, Scott, is keeping up with me, calling me and giving me advice about stuff. And he just did a real nice job. He was just very thoughtful and gave you the impression like you're next-door neighbors. He would check back with me and answered all my questions. He kind of greased the tracks all the way along. And especially since in my case, it was a pain to have to get all to arrange the five acres and all that kind of thing so he stayed in touch with me.

The application and underwriting process took a few weeks and it went very fast. However, the rates are quite high for the initial services. I don't even have an expensive house, but it didn't make a difference. It was over $8,000 just to take off the loan, and I thought that was really high for a loan of less than $80,000. FAR was quite good in the process and I'm very happy with the service that I got, but I would warn people about the cost of the initial process. Also, I don't understand why they're sending me insurance on my loan and calling it a mortgage. It doesn't make any sense why they should be contacting me to take out mortgage insurance on a mortgage that they don't even have the right numbers on.

I would highly recommend the last notary that came out here. She was very professional and she understood everything. She was able to explain stuff to us while we were going to the signing procedures. The other guy that FAR sent out didn’t know anything. He was just a post man doing this for a second job. He didn’t answer any questions for me and couldn’t explain any of the paperwork for me. He didn’t want to take the time to let me read it all. The last lady that came out did the planning for us and she was on the mark with everything. Any question we had, she had the answer. She didn’t miss any signature lines, exactly what everything was, where it was and how it was supposed to be signed. She was on her game. She was very pleasant to do business with. Another girl that I worked with was really professional too. She was very nice and easy to work with. I highly recommend that others use FAR.

The loan officer followed up on everything and made sure that we were made aware of everything that was going to happen and everything came through. He was topnotch. The biggest problem we had was with the original attorney that came out. He didn't have the patience that was needed. He wanted to start going through the paperwork by skipping and signing instead of explaining everything as my mother was signing, and then he made the comment that if he did that, he'd be here all day. We stopped the process right there and told the loan officer to send us somebody else. But the FAR team was excellent and the rate was fair. The process was laid out so I'm happy.

I’ve also talked to AIG, and their representative didn’t give me as much information, faxed me, or mailed me anything. They didn’t do anything for me. Finance of America, on the other hand, mailed me a whole bunch of information, and really gave me all that I needed. The process took a couple of months, which was pretty quick, considering that it was during the Christmas holidays. Ellen was just great, and she helped me a lot. However, there were a lot of paperwork, and my mother in law had to sign about 20 pages twice. It was first preliminary, and when everything got finalized, there was a change, and she had to go back and sign again after the evaluation. It was a lot of paperwork, but I understood that. Finance of America’s terms were pretty well. I’m not paying anything back yet. I had a couple of payments, and that has worked pretty well.

My loan officer was Stacy and I loved her familiarity. We talked business and she was a very intelligent young woman, had a great sense of humor and was more than willing to answer any questions that I had to make me understand the process. David was my guidance director that I had to go see, and he was great as well. He explained things down to my level and not at an upper level where they're talking legalities. He brought it down to a human level where you can understand the who, what and where.

In the beginning, I was a little nervous but that was expected. But now I can go and do what I want. I can do a little traveling and get a few extra things to upgrade my house. Or if I decide I want to go buy a new car, I got the money. I can sit back and live on my social security and retirement, and I got all my bills paid off. I'm also able to get my teeth done, which is another another reason why I got a reverse mortgage. I would tell my friends to go to Finance of America Reverse and I'd go the extra mile to give them all the information I could give.

My loan officer took care of all the questions. I also worked with the manager when he stepped in because the loan officer had a family emergency. They worked together and it was a seamless transfer. The application process was really simple and including the underwriting, it took about three months. Now, I don’t have any payments anymore and I’m going to retire in another year.

But I don't understand Celink paying me. I include interest of $400 and they charged me $200 and some for the interest and the mortgage insurance. And Celink has been taking that out of the untouched equity. They took it from my portion of my interest that I earned that was supposed to go into my line of credit. I found that very strange. Because I've got a huge chunk of equity build up in my house that I can't touch it's not doing me any good. And I'm wondering what they're going to do when their line of credit is less than my interest if they try to get into my line of credit then we're going to have problems. But as far the rates I know they were good. The maximum amount that they could charge me is 8% and they can only charge 2% at a time until they reach that maximum. Finance of America is a very good company but they are a mortgage broker, not a finance company.

The application process was convoluted and not very pleasant, though. Even though the people at Finance of America walked me through it, the FHA imposes a lot of overkill in terms of what they're asking for documentation. I understood it because there is some abuse of these mortgages, but it seemed a bit too much to me. I also found the questions asked to be very invasive. It was also difficult to prove that I live in this house and that I didn’t still live in my old house. It was again a lot of hard requirements and I don’t know how they're involved in it.

It was a long distance thing working with the loan officer, who was in Tulsa while I'm in New York. A couple of times I was wondering why such a long distance. I was thinking do they really have any people in New York and have they made me loans there, but I was assured that they did. I got many calls from the loan officer and at first I thought it was a little on the high pressure side, but after the initial application it sort of calmed down a little bit. It was helpful in having someone explain to me why they needed each piece of information, but it just was a lot of hassle. Some days it seems like there were several phone calls, then after the closing when I had some questions, I got no answers at all. I guess they turned it over to a servicing company, who finally sent me a packet of information that I got several weeks later.

It was certainly very expensive to get the mortgage, starting out with quite a high balance because of the closing costs. Closing was in December, and there was a bit of a thing at the end where they wanted to pre-pay some local taxes due January 31st. In fact, I hadn’t even received my tax bill and I didn’t until January 2nd or 3rd. They said they were required to pay anything that was due within 90 days before the closing and so that was added to my balance and they said, “After it's over you can pay us back for that and reduce the balance.” I found that strange, and then when I got my tax bill from the town, I looked it up on the website and it said this has not been paid.

I tried to contact Finance of America. I said, “What was this $2,000 that was taken out? It said it was for taxes.” I went and paid them, then I found out later on that it had been paid, but it hadn’t been recorded as such by the town. I had to get it all back from the town. It was sloppy, and what they claimed was paid was not the same amount as the tax bill, which was $1,600. I don’t know where the other money went. I wrote emails to the person I dealt with in Tulsa and I got no answer whatsoever.

I doubt anybody else would have done a better job than Finance of America, though. They were certainly straightforward and thorough. Every single T was crossed and every I dotted. They also provided me with tons of documentation. I have confidence in them as being honest. The whole recent changes in reverse mortgages to tighten it up and reduce the amount you get a little bit, I don’t think the reverse mortgage company has any control over that. A couple of times during the whole thing I said, "Why don’t we just forget it?" A lot of the parts of the procedure that seemed burdensome were probably not their fault.

It took a little slow for Finance of America to come over to the house and evaluate what it was worth. But once the rep came and did what she had to do, it went along fine. Everybody is so helpful when you go to these places to have them tell you what it's about so that you understand it better. Their rates were fair and they explained that later on, they’ll evaluate the house again. Their explanation was fine. The person who came here at the house to sign the papers was super nice. If I were to recommend it, I'd also tell my friends that Finance of America will take good care of them and I'd lean them towards Joe.

The process was lengthy. We did that online counseling. A guy called and we talked for an hour about this and that and after that it was just a lot of paperwork, just to fill out everything. But my representative, Toby, was very thorough and very helpful in the process. He has his own personal phone and it didn’t matter what time of the day or week it was he was always available. Whenever I had a question he always got right back to me with an answer -- if he didn’t know it already, which I think he always did. It was a very smooth process and I was appreciative.

I can't imagine most of the people that do reverse mortgages or elderly and they don’t really get it as far as finances. But I think the whole system is set up to protect older people so they don’t get taken advantage of. Finance of America did a great job. Plus the rate and the terms of the reverse mortgage were all reasonable. I achieved what I wanted to at the onset of it to pay out some stuff and use the money for things. It worked out exactly how we wanted it to.

I had studied on reverse mortgage and I had experience with my own parents so it was something I had in the back of my main mind. I was ready and all I had to do was call somebody and take up the lesson. It went so easily. Monica was exceptional and I love her. She was right on top of things every step of the way. It took a couple of months, which was just right. We closed and I'm happy. I also had an A-1 experience from the girl who came for the closing. I would recommend that company to anybody.

I got the money that I wanted and the terms were wonderful. The reverse mortgage was more than I expected. I had taken out a loan to build up credit even though I have good credit and they paid that off for me and I'm very satisfied with everything. It's nice to know that there are alternatives somewhere and you don't have to be stuck somewhere. It works well for me, not having any family. I came from Rhode Island and I got back four months out of the year. I built a house up there with my kid brother and hopefully, I'll be buried there. That was why I wanted to make sure I had something solid that I could depend on if something happened to me.

Tamara was Godsend all the way through. She’s just totally amazing. A lot of people are negative about the reverse mortgage and that’s fine because not everything is for everybody anyway but it did work for me. I thought the application process was very involved and I wish I would have known that part of it. I also wish it would have been less but then I understand too. There is a process that had to be done. There was a lot to take in. From start to finish it took two days. At the end finally everything went through the way it was supposed to. For awhile we thought we weren't going to go through and then it did and that was a big plus.

We had a review of the house and then at closing those two folks were really not evasive or anything like that. It was just a few questions that they couldn’t really answer without calling someone else. So they could have been a little sharper on knowing their business. But they called once they got the answer. We had a reverse mortgage before on a home we had in Colorado and that was a very simple process and here it seemed to be really long. And I don’t know if that’s Texas or if it's between Texas and Colorado. But Finance of America helped us get things done and once we signed all the documents they took care of everything from their end.

It was a very difficult process but it was due to our own circumstances. It took about 9 months and we had to do a lot of court work but when we started my mother entered hospice then she passed away and then we had to move everything to my father’s name. So it was more of a unique situation for us. The process would have been totally different had not all these things occurred to us.

But there is a part of the application process where someone else calls me and explains to me exactly what we're doing, asks me questions and assesses the individual to make sure they're making good decisions. And when I say individuals we are talking about the seniors. So I thought that was a good process to put in in the application. A lot of times seniors are taken advantage of but taking those classes and making sure that you knew what you were doing I think that was very good for the application process. Also the rate and terms of the reverse mortgage was competitive. I would definitely recommend them. I would tell friends to go ahead and use them.

We had some hassles trying to go back to the monthly stipends. So I went a month without any income from that existing mortgage or the new mortgage, so that was tough. Also the bad thing was that the monthly stipend is less than what it was before even though the house was valued or appraised at almost $100,000 more than it was two years ago. But the agent that I work with, Scott, was excellent. He was very easy to work with and actually a pleasure. I already let 2 other people know what's involved and kind of walked them through it a little bit.

They sent someone here and they explained everything page by page as we went along. It was just all done really, really well. The counseling service part was also really good. He told me the other ways I could go. Then I had time to make this decision. I didn’t have to jump into it. He was really very helpful. I'm much more at ease now. I don’t have to worry about losing my house or not being able to pay the taxes because I was leaning on my son a lot to do that. That wasn’t really fair to him either. This is much better. I'm still independent. I have a few friends that have been asking me and I recommend Finance of America, especially John. If I had a question he called me right back. I wasn’t like waiting days to hear from this person. That's a big help because sometimes they don’t call you back but John was right on top of it.

Then there's also a big comeback. They took all my money out of my house and put it aside for paying the taxes for the next 20 years. I didn’t like what they do with the taxes but that was the only way I was going to get money. I had the house since ’96 and never had anybody pay my taxes but me. Other than that, the loan officer was great and she helped me right and left anywhere we could. She gave us her home phone number that we could call back and forth if we had any questions. I was pleased with her and she really did a fantastic job and even bent over backwards.

I applied in June and I didn't get settled until November. I had some medical bills that were outstanding that have been taken to small claims which my husband was taking care of and I didn't know anything about. But Finance of America Reverse wanted a letter stating what that was all about. Then I had to rewrite the letter quite a few times. At first, Joshua didn't call me right away to tell me that I had been denied. A while went by without me knowing I wasn't going to be approved but by the time I got all my information together, my application got approved and the mortgage went through. Even the person who came to do the paperwork with me was asking why it was taking so long.

Other than that, everybody was extremely helpful and polite. The information they gave me was great, though, their rates could be a lot less. I could have also hoped that it would have ended up with more money at the end. But that has nothing to do with Finance of America. Working with them has given me peace of mind since I know that I don't have to worry about my monthly mortgage now. I'm sorry I will eventually lose my home but my children were all fine with that. It's not a big expensive home and they feel like if I can stay here, that's the most important thing. So it was a very good experience for me and I'm very happy I went that route. I tell my friends that they should call Finance of America Reverse and that everybody there will accommodate them in any way they can.

Finance of America Reverse has taken a bit of worry off our minds. If something comes up that we have to miss a payment, we can do it now. Having that cushion and that safety net out there is very comforting for me and my wife. Overall, they were very good. I stopped the application at one point because we thought we were going a different direction. But two or three weeks later, I went back to Didi and told here that I would like to continue on and she just picked it up immediately right where we left off. It was a very positive experience all the way through.

It was the smoothest mortgage we’ve ever done and we’ve had several homes that we’ve done mortgages with over the years. And life has been a lot easier since I retired last month. Now, we don’t have a big mortgage payment to make every month. If I know of anybody that’s looking into it, I will definitely give them Katie’s name and number and tell them to go ahead and get it through them.

Katy from Finance of America Reverse called me a month before and had left me her number, and I called her and we talked to her a while and I told her I was interested in a reverse mortgage. She went over everything with me and told me how it would go and what I needed to do. And so, we got started. The application process was very easy. Everything was processed and handled in a very timely manner. I never once had a question that I asked Katy that she didn't know. If she didn’t know, she would find out what it was and she'd call me back. In fact, she talked to me almost daily to make sure everything was still okay with me. She was fantastic and I would recommend her to anyone. Finance of America was very good. I had wished that the appraisal had been a little better, but they did a fantastic job on that, too.

Knowing what we know now, we would contact Finance of America Reverse directly to forego the high pressure phone calls you open yourself up to once you fill out a form online. You can still do research online - just don't fill out forms giving your contact information. Initially we applied with one of the largest reverse mortgage companies in the country. The mortgage officer was fairly patient and answered our questions, but we still didn't understand the complexity of the process. One of the requirements to obtain a reverse mortgage is to go through a phone counseling session that tests your understanding of the process. You pay for the counseling - and you are able to finance it with the rest of the loan but why would you want to increase the amount you are financing? We paid $125 by credit card. Our experience with QuickCert was extremely poor. We felt the counselor was reading a script and waiting for our response.

If we asked a question he became irritated and couldn't wait for the session to end. There are many counseling resources - ask for a referral from your lender. After our "counseling session" we were left with many unanswered questions, discussed them with the lender, and still felt uncertain that we knew what we were doing was in our best interest. As the process continued, we were contacted by a "processor" from another part of the country, then a title company representative - both were a surprise to us, but are routinely used - we just weren't forewarned they would be calling and requesting information. We had more questions and several of our attempts to reach the lender went unanswered for several days. Our confidence dropped through the floor and we went in search of another lender.

We found Finance of America Reverse on a rating of the top 10 reverse mortgage companies and were fortunate enough to be in contact with Barbara **, Reverse Mortgage Specialist. Barbara has the ability to communicate clearly and we felt much more informed by the time we decided to change lenders. We had completed many of the preliminary steps such as an appraisal of the property, the counseling session, and completion of the application. Our records were transferred from the first lender to Finance of America Reverse (a requirement of HUD - within 72 hours). After the transfer the process went smoothly. Barbara was in touch with us every step of the way. We never felt pressured and felt we were in the confident hands of a professional who honestly cared about us.

We were in a precarious financial position and Barbara was splendid in the clutch! We have just completed the process and feel hope for the future. We may not have a plentiful income, but we have the capability to stay in the home we built for the rest of our lives. In addition to reduce our worries, we visited with an accountant and discussed our situation, who also reviewed the Good Faith Estimate of what the loan would cost, as well as a review of our monthly expenses and what we would need to do to "bridge the gap".

In the beginning, all of the reverse mortgage companies that we talked to were not easy to work with and joked about kind of like I was having to walk through a hundred miles of desert on my knees to get that loan. We had an attorney that we worked with that thought it would be a good idea to put their home in a revocable trust but that turned to be a terrible piece of advice. They weren’t wealthy enough to have that and it didn’t do anything except screw up our application. And there were also all kinds of issues with regard to my parents' capacity and we didn’t want to publicly declare them as incapacitated.

It was kind of a catch-22 that Finance of America and the other people we were talking about having a problem with my parents just turning over control of their finances to my brother and me as their trustees of a medical trust. But there was a young guy named Eric from Finance of America who seemed to take a personal interest in our case and we stuck with him. His credit people wanted a lot of doctors' letters though which was problematic. Doctors didn’t really want to put their credibility out there and go out on a limb for us, but we got it done.

There were times though when we considered going to other places instead of Finance of America, but Eric was a constant. He was reliable and he seemed to give a care which was important and we ended up closing on the loan with them. We had no debt on the house and we had good collateral. But apparently, there was a lot of issues around children taking out reverse mortgages on their parents and on them spending the money on themselves instead of their parents and we had to work around that.

The process from the application to the underwriting took somewhere around six months which was a lot longer than we initially thought. It pitted the doctors against the credit people. I thought if I had five minutes alone in a room with the credit people, I wouldn't have loved it. But Eric hung in there and I give him a lot of credit for making it happen. He took a lot of abuse from me. I would get furiously angry when they wanted another doctor's letter and made me go back to those doctors.

And the doctors were digging in, they didn’t want to help, and they were making up crazy stuff. They were talking about their legal department if they had to do it and they didn’t even have a legal department. We got a grand total of eight doctors' letters, all of which were hard-fought signatures to get. And I thought the credit people wanted detailed information that weren't really necessary. We gave them probably five inches of documents if you stack it on the table. But it was made a lot more difficult by the fact that the house was owned by their trust rather by an individual.

We had to pay a really hefty fee, around $7,500 which we had to take as part of the loan proceeds. We then took down $12,000. But I got a letter the other day that shows the balance on the loan is between $19,000 and $20,000. Finance of America made a load of money on my parents and I don't have any doubt that it was a profitable transaction for the bank. But it's done and my parents have been using that money to pay for caregivers 24/7.

I've known Finance of America at the bank for a number of years and they're a corky headed company that come up with reasons to deny a loan. When I was at the bank, I could have confronted them face-to-face, but Eric wouldn’t let me talk to them directly. I was so mad at them. In conclusion, the credit people suck and I hate them but the loan officers that are having to go to the credit people are good guys. The credit people were not educated about trust and I was astounded at how ignorant they were about it. Somebody that is making loans to old people should know about trust and it made it much more difficult to work with them.

They should definitely put some more effort into educating their people about that. They could get some retired trust officers to teach them some seminars because most wealthier people want to use a trust. It's supposed to provide a much smoother transition of authority and control of the wealth. But all it did was confuse and complicate the loan process in our reverse mortgage experience.

One of their ex-managers talked to me about it and we got into a discussion about what was practical and what was not. And the practical thing was we needed to get our parents some money for the caregivers. My parents maybe made $150,000 in that house which was a whole lot and it should last about three more years with their pensions and their social securities. Overall, the experience wasn't the worst experience of my life but I wouldn’t do it again. Eric, though, deserves to gets a pat on the head because he was a good and caring individual who gave it a good try. He had character and honesty and I was appreciative of his effort.

Our house payment was getting steep because the taxes have increased dramatically in our area. It was getting very difficult for us to make the payments whenever we got behind. Working with Finance of America Reverse gave us some relief on our house payments. The application process that Troy put us through was simple enough, and he explained it to us in a satisfactory way. Also, the training that we went through at Great Falls was very helpful. It helped us a lot to make the decision and feel that this decision was the right one for us. The initial outlay was $21,000, but a fair amount of that was the insurance that was required and for what it provided for us, it was doable. We were very satisfied overall.

But when I found out that the cost of doing the business was going up and the amount of receiving the money was going down, that made hop to it and get busy and be sure that I was grandfathered into getting it done on the original plan. Once I made the decision of which company to go with, Finance of America Reverse, it was a painless process. I liked the person who called me and the frequency of which he called, not too much yet enough. He was willing to listen to me and if I had questions, he made me feel comfortable about asking them. In general, he made me feel like he was there to help me.

I also dealt with Reggie and he was wonderful. He did an outstanding job of making me feel that he had my best interest at heart and I was just very impressed with his professionalism combined with his friendliness. I had no feeling that I was being taken advantage of, that I was being rushed or that all they wanted to do was get my money. I felt that he was there to support me through the process. One time, I wasn’t able to get a hold of him as he was at lunch. His boss stepped in, didn't miss a beat and I was very impressed with how well-informed he was regarding my case. And although I’m sure it was all right there on the computer, he was able to help me. And when I call Finance of America and they were not available, they called me back almost immediately.

I also have an older brother who helps support me in making financial decisions. Finance of America was perfectly willing to let him be on the calls, ask questions and be involved and I appreciated that. The thing that slowed me down though and even gave me the thought to possibly not do the reverse mortgage was the amount the I had to pay to borrow my own money. The closing cost was way too high. But I understood that most of that was regulated by the government so most all of it was the same. I realized too that there were a lot of man-hours and people involved that handled that situation and they had to be paid. They explained it to me though I’m still not sure that I’m really clear on the ways that can be paid back to me.

However, they could be more thorough in letting me know the details and what happens from one stage to the other. I tried to comprehend all of the details of my loan but I don't thoroughly understand all of them. Right now, they held back for money and I was under the impression that it was only to get the painting done. So, I got all of that done and paid for that. Then I got back with them and wanted the money back but they stayed withheld. Finance of America said that they could only give me a portion of that because there were other things that need to be fixed. That wasn't my understanding upfront, so that was kind of a disappointment.

I was also really unhappy with who they sent out to do my appraisal, which would have been a red flag. That was what they should have checked on there because I previously had my house appraised with AAG before I cancelled out and they had the property appraised at $260,000. But when Finance of America called somebody out here, they just appraised my house at $187,000, which was really laughable because the rate and the value of the home for taxes was more than that on that tax row. Then Finance of America rushed me through that to get on this new rate that was going to change in October.

Everything I needed to have answered, they answered. And when they needed something from me, they made certain that I clearly understood why I needed to put it together that way. It was a very typical mortgage process where a representative is assigned to you and they coordinate everything. I got everything I needed to have out of my rep. I gave him a few questions and when he couldn’t answer, he'd go and find out from one of the other parties that he had access to. Then he came back with an answer. He was proactive and very interested in making certain that we were being serviced. Also, the rate I got is as competitive as a 30-year close regular mortgage and so I was very pleased with it. We got to pay FHA insurance because it was part of what they do. But, it’s not that much, just a few dollars a month.

I also asked Finance of America to ensure that there were certain legal documents that were used when they closed and they did that. They had to because I sub plotted my land. It's tied it up in my home. I’ve been through a lot of mortgages and I found that Finance of America was very easy to work with. In fact, I’ve had more trouble with 30 mortgages and people coming up on stupid things the last minute that they couldn’t get them done. But these guys were well organized.

Miranda won my confidence over the other person. She was great and she worked me pretty hard. She made me get a lot of papers because I’ve had some dings on my credit because of my wife’s health. She died about 14 months ago, and the last few years were really chaotic to kind of keep everything together and take care of her, and work part-time, too. And so, we were able to get the papers together that gave the crediting organizations the confidence to go through with it.

We had some trouble at the beginning because I was trying to get records from doctors. And in these doctors’ offices, one of them particularly kept saying that they had sent the records in. And finally, they discovered that their fax wasn’t working, and they’ve been trying to send the records in, but it wasn’t working. It took a long time to get the papers from my doctors. And then getting that done, it finally helped Finance of America to approve the loan, and also because they could see that I had been really struggling. And because of my wife’s problems, I couldn’t hold down a full-time job.

After we got everything done, the other company that had done the inspection with them was holding something of mine that Miranda needed. And it took them about a week to finally release it. But then about the time I was to get the money, I had to go to Alaska, so we put receiving the money a few days after I got back from Alaska. So, there were some things that entered into the process that slowed it down, but I don’t have any complaints. Miranda was very nice to work with, and I enjoyed working with her. She was persistent, and she answered my questions. And if I had to call her, she would either pick up or call me the next day. So, everything was punctual in that regard. I would recommend somebody going with Finance of America.

I’ve lived in my house for 49 years. And I don’t do it anymore, but I used to. Previously, in refinancing my mortgage, I always had one company, and I didn’t realize that the association and my clubhouse here is changing. It’s changing from people that could afford a $52,000 home, and I just threw the bills away. So, then, they actually were going to put a lien on my house when I opened the last one and I just panicked. I thought, "What is going on?" I called my association, Villageway Management, that had been since we bought this home brand new. They said, unfortunately, they had been changed over to a younger millennium company, so that’s the way that goes.

That was an issue for me and I really was disappointed that I had not a clue and had thrown my mail away, and I don’t do that anymore. Because what I was saying didn’t concur with what they were saying, it made me look like I was a liar. And finally, I caught on to it, and I told him, “Well, I wish you would’ve just been straightforward with me and told me what the truth was, that I was in the wrong.” But he was so nice. He didn’t want to offend me that I was telling the wrong story. William was also very concerned about me and my health. I'd absolutely recommend everybody that I spoke to at Finance of America Reverse.

They said I got $4,000 that they’re holding because the porch out back has a plastic roof. When that hurricane came through, a tree limb went down there, and it's got a big hole in it. We said, "That needed to be fixed." And the garage door's paint bubbled up from the sun. I just got to sand it down and repaint it. They said I could get the $4,000. But when I talked to them later, they said, "No, you got everything." So, I don't know what's going on. It was just rude.

I had both my legs amputated and I got hospital bills like crazy. I got my first check from Finance, but that's already gone. And they said, "What? For a year and a half?" I said, “Well, guess what? The hospital wants a lot of money.” Everything was coming down all at once. That's why I did this with Finance of America. And I like working with them. I've had people ask me about it and I told them. I actually gave one person one of their videos. And I explained to him what was going on.

I found Diana of Finance of America to be very easy to talk with. I enjoyed her style. And I had spoken with others, in fact, I had a niece who works at AIG at the time. She was in marketing I had all the materials at my disposal. Initially I wasn’t sure if I was going to do it, then I found another company that had much lower fees. So I let Diana know that that was my reason for choosing the other company. And Diana did go to her management and was allowed to compete with that. I showed them the documentation and the fees that I would pay with the other company and they agreed to match them.

But I was a little bit frustrated towards the end because I was travelling a lot and I had given a projected closing date. I said if we can’t close in the first week of October then I probably couldn’t close until the end of October because I’d be travelling. But I was back home early and I told Diana, “I’m back in town. Hopefully we can close within the next week.” And, no, it was two more weeks of, “We can’t do it. We can’t do it.” And I didn’t understand that. It was just taking too long, which created last minute problems like, “Oh, now we need to look at this again. Now we need this for your trust.” It was a very stressful final closing because of going back and forth. But once we were through with it, it did accomplish what I expected it to accomplish.

Their rate is competitive and the relationship with Diana is what kept me with the company. My background working for Wall Street firms was all about relationships and so I appreciate that. She was initially the first woman I spoke to on this. Other companies, again, once you put it out there that you’re looking, they start bombarding you. But I decided to show my loyalty to her especially when she went on my behalf to match that. I think it saved me about $4,500 so it was good. I would give very high marks to Diana for the relationship she establishes.

So far I haven't had any trouble. Sometimes I'd call him and he'd be busy and I got to leave a message, but he always called me back if I didn't get a hold of him. They sent me a booklet out here three weeks ago telling me I haven't gotten the first statement yet but assuming it's going to be on the first month. I'm not crazy about the adjustable part of the mortgage but it's the only choice that FAR had for what I did. I'd recommend them.

After that, Kevin sent me a contract so I did that. Then we did a formal appraisal and he told me all the terms. Everything was inline and they set it up so I have the funds under a line of credit, which was what I wanted. I worked in real estate law for 35 years doing loans, so I had a lot going on than the average person. I represented commercial loans and real estate loans so I had a lot of understanding and that made the process a little better and easier because I didn’t have the usual questions that a lot of people would have. I went through the whole process as if I was not an educated person in the area, then I had to do everything else that everybody else does, and things went smoothly.

Kevin orchestrated the whole thing and he did a great job. He was phenomenal and if he didn’t have the answer to my question, he'd tell me that he'd get it the next day. He also responded at all times. Everybody that I dealt with there did that. Everybody I spoke with was also very informative, very detail-oriented, and could answer any question I asked them. They gave me all the information I could possibly ask for and acted effectively. The closing went perfectly, too, and everything happened the way it was supposed to. It was very timely yet it didn’t happen so fast that I couldn’t think about it. So it was all handled extremely well.

Working with Finance of America Reverse changed my life 100% and the loan I got from them gave me my retirement. The money I have is a safety net and I'm not living off of it. So if I need a new furnace or a new roof on my house, I've got the cash to get it done. And the fact that it's earning interest while it's sitting there is good. Overall, my experience was almost perfect and I was very happy with the way my transaction with Finance of America Reverse went.

I had shopped and I got contacted by six different providers of reverse mortgages. When you shop, you can get a better deal somewhere else. In this case, the interest rate was what I was looking for. I finally found one and it seemed to have offered the lowest interest rate. Everybody was offering no fees which seemed to be the standard practice in the business and it must be built into the interest rate somewhere because those guys don't work for free and that was fine.

As I was beginning to commit to the company, Chip of Finance of America Reverse happened to give me a call. I told him what the interest was and he beat that by offering me a quarter point lower than the best I had so far and he got my business. A quarter of a percent on a mortgage, over time is a lot of money. Chip was very friendly, easy to work with and he would always get back to me answering my questions either by phone or email. He was on top of things.

There were a few little blips here and there during the process but those were to be expected. When Chip had a family medical emergency, he was out for a couple of days at the time we were getting ready to do the closing. Somebody else contacted me with the final closing date. But prior to sending a notary out with all the closing documents, the numbers weren't adding up. It was coming out a couple of thousand dollars more than I thought it should.

The lady who took over for Chip that day didn't give me adequate answers as to why the numbers were off by a couple of thousand dollars. So we canceled the first closing several hours before it was supposed to take place which was fine since I was in no rush. I wasn't in desperate need of the money. I was just getting a significantly higher line of credit tied to the value of my home. It had gone up significantly since my first mortgage. When Chip got back, he got that all sorted out and we subsequently closed a week or two later. That went smoothly.

My reverse mortgage was transferred Celink for administration or handling of the mortgage. It happened to be the same company that I was with on my previous reverse mortgage. An issue I had recently though was they overestimated a little bit the amount that was going to take to pay off the existing mortgage. It was over $480. It was supposed to be sent to me but a month and a half later, I haven't received any money nor accounting as to how much money I should have been receiving. I called Celink and they said they mailed the check yesterday and told me the amount of check.

Another issue is I didn't really get what I would consider a closing statement on the old mortgage and an opening statement on the new one so I could exactly tie up the numbers. I just got the standard, month-end last statement which wasn't the end of the loan. That was 15 days later. And a new statement which is 15 days after the new one had taken over but nothing that tied the two together in the closing state. I have to manually go calculate the day-to-day interest and they've added up. I could take the last monthly statement on the old one and manually run in a calculator, tie it out to the new one within about two dollars, which is plainly close enough. Fortunately, I have a background in finance.

Also, we live in a small town where people live in their homes and pass it on to their people. There's not a lot of buying and selling. Our house was built in 1926 and there aren't that many homes that are kept up that old so we had a problem getting an appraisal with AIG. The neighbors bought a house which was built in ’67 and they had people that wanted it but the mortgage companies wouldn’t finance them because of their financial situations. So they kept lowering the price until they finally decided not to give their house away and just stay. This lady from AIG told us that we couldn't get much for our house as even our neighbors couldn’t sell theirs. We tried working with her for weeks and it didn’t work out.

Then we got online and got several calls. One of them was from Finance of America and her name was Shannan. She was very friendly, very understanding, and worked us right through their process. It was easy to talk to her and she explained things. We knew we had to do something but she was the one that really helped out. Shannan would also call when needed and ask how things were going.

Finance of America Reverse did everything that they did smoothly and naturally. When they came and got 500 papers for us to sign, that was scary. But they got local people and everyone was very friendly. Plus, the notary who came out to witness our signatures explained everything. If we asked a question and she couldn’t answer it, she called their office right away, put the speaker on, and they explained things to us. Working with Finance of America Reverse made life a lot easier for us. When you're financially strapped, you worry all the time. Right now, we're trying to be very careful so far, we're just pulling what we need from what we have when we need it.

What got me with Finance of America Reverse was my loan officer's diligence in getting to me right away. I felt great working with him. I wasn't even done typing on the internet when I was inquiring about this stuff and he was the first one that called. He was the most knowledgeable and he gets an A-plus and thumbs up for that. He was very courteous. At the time he was quick to return phone calls, stayed in touch, and made me feel like I was the only customer. He would fill me in on what kind of key improvements that might be a low cost would greatly increase the value. I couldn't ask for a better guy to deal with. Basically, the process took about a month and a half or two months, and everything went really seamless. They told me what they needed from me and I provided it to them. They were quick in answering the phone and in calling me back if they needed something additional, and I was quick to respond.

The only thing that could have been improved was the appraisal on the house. The one company they used to do the appraisal low-balled it. They said they don't have a choice of what company they use for the appraisal on the house. When the appraiser came here, I pointed out all the improvements, repairs, updates, everything that was done to this house in great detail. Look at it this way. You get a person to come and do an assessment on the house and they charge $700. These guys are professionals. How can you possibly assess the value of the house in 30 minutes? I could have hired a professional home inspector that real estate companies use for about $400 or $500 and it would have been much more detailed.

Basically, the guy from the appraisal company just did a cursory walk through, taking pictures and making notes of this and that, but not peeling away the layers. You got the cheap faucet from Home Depot that cost $69. You put it in, it's new, and it works. It's not going to last, but it looks nice, so the appraiser won't take into account that this isn't some cheap-o-depot, brand new faucet for $69 bucks.

When you're buying a house and you hire a home inspector, that home inspector will take four to five hours going through the house, peeling away the layers, looking at everything, in all the nooks and crannies. They then come up with their assessment of what kind of condition the house is in, what's it going to cost you to fix this, that, and the other. But their home appraisers came in, blew through the place real quick and came up with some arbitrary number that's not based on any facts. It's almost like these assessors that these mortgage companies are using are low balling the appraisal so the mortgage company has a lower number to deal with, which means a lower payout.

The house actually came out lower than what the town property appraisal assessed that. Now I'm in the process of arguing with that appraiser to say, "This is a professional appraisal from a mortgage company just saying the house is only worth $75,000 and you guys are charging me for $90,000 on the house. Something is not matching up over here." He says, "Usually, the value of the house is lower than what the actual appraisal is." But the house is good shape. Maybe that's how it works. They might be hammered into just keep producing and keep producing and not to waste time with distant customers and let the servicing company deal with that. I felt like I was dropped like a hot potato after the closing.

There were things that the loan officer and I can do once this loan closed to bump the appraisal up on the house for the following year, but he told me the appraisal was out of his hands. After the closing, it's like, "We went to the dance and now you let me go home by myself." Everything went pretty seamless, until after the closing, and then I couldn't get a return phone call. With Finance of America Reverse, half the game was great, but there was no follow-up after the fact.

Obtaining the mortgage lasted for months because we had some problems but the way they worked them out was very good. They sent us the information package and we went through all of that. Then we did the application. There was a bit of back and forth on that plus there were some delays because this area is very active in real estate so getting an appraisal took some time. In fact, we got into a very heated back and forth with the appraisal company. One of the things that was hard was that the appraisal that came in was 75,000 to 100,000 less than what the house was being taxed on. But we live in a very nice area that people like and want, and the houses here sell really quickly. Also, the rep did not take any of the houses in our area and there were some that were more than a mile away.

There was also a ridiculous law where there's no way we could get a second appraisal and there was no way that we could appeal or object, in a reasonable period of time. The process for objecting or appealing in Oregon could last for up to a year and nobody was going to sit around going through a process like that when they're in the middle of trying to get a loan approved. Another confusing factor was that the government changed the rules on November so we could not back off from the application we had and reapply.

Then there was the counseling thing that took some time scheduling. So it was a very long drawn out process. But I understand that there were a lot of government rules that they had to follow and the problems had nothing to do with the reverse mortgage company. Through all of that process, the mortgage company was very good, helpful and supportive of what we were doing. They even objected to the appraisal which was like a foreign water in the ocean.

So far, our reverse mortgage freed up our goal which was to get rid of the two house payments that we have. Our cash flow changed substantially as well. In addition to that, there's enough credit available that we would be able to pay our taxes for several years. We're coming up on 84 years of age and at our age, it should last us as long as we live in the house to not have to pay the taxes and not have to make the mortgage payment. We would recommend Finance of America Reverse as an excellent company to work with. I did some background check on them around investment advisers in BBB and they checked out very good. I also liked their statement that they are the second largest company in this business and that currently, their company is very large and substantial financially. Our experience was excellent.

We happened to be in a situation where it makes sense for us to engage in a reverse mortgage to eliminate monthly mortgage payments. And we shopped around and found that Finance of America was the best alternative for us. The direction which we received on making the application was rather lengthy but we had the documentation. So, we followed the very clear path and things moved ahead smoothly. It wasn't very difficult. And we were able to close in slightly more than 30 days. Rates change from time to time, but we were able to get in under the wire before some of the rules changed, and it was to our advantage which we appreciated.

We did business with Finance of America between Texas and Southern California, and if they were a little closer, we would have become personally acquainted. But as it turned out, everything was fine. We're very satisfied and would recommend them to anyone. We had an excellent experience in a marketplace where there is a great deal of misunderstanding. And there are some places in that marketplace who are not up to the standard of Finance of America.

When I started working with Toby, the rep from Finance of America Reverse, I got phone calls from other people. One was from West Virginia who called twice and said that they'd give me $125,000 the following week to be my reverse mortgage institution. The other one was from Kansas who told me that they'd give me $75,000 the following week for the reverse mortgage. It was weird and I was wondering if my information went all over the internet. But their offers were too good to be true and I didn't call those guys back.

Toby and I talked for about five months. He said it was the longest he had ever spent on one reverse mortgage and I believed it. We must have spent 90 hours on the phone and at one point, I told them it was a pain in the ass. I'm extremely patient but I sent them paperwork three times and I didn't know why. I already told them I got a job and work for nine months of the year. I even gave them my pine cone sales to show I was legit and everything they wanted. But they wanted pay stubs in August, wanted more in September, and even wanted more in October. He probably thought I was too good to be true because some people hide things and lie. But I had nothing to hide or lie about.

So it was tough and getting the mortgage took a lot of work. Also, I got a free land which I pay taxes on and where the house is on, then I have land that's on trust. It took hours for Toby to finally get it straight that I was dealing the house on the free land and that I didn't deal with the trust land because that's Indian land. Even though I still own it, I don't pay taxes on it. So that was the hardest part of the whole process. But once we got that conquered, things were smooth sailing.

All in all, I like that I wasn't paying Tribal Credit back 7%. I felt like I was being robbed by that so the fact that Finance of America Reverse billed me out at 4.25 was a relief. I'd be almost a fool not to do it with them to save interest because I'd be saving thousands of dollars. I looked at what I paid in the previous year and it showed that I had $13,000 in payments but about $9,500 of that went to the interest. So I threw away $10,000 a year in interest. With Finance of America Reverse, I look at it in a way that I'd be saving 10 and I could use that 10 to start saving to make the final payoff once I decide to sell my house.

I did a refinance the prior year with another company through LendingTree and my experience was a little different. Once I dealt with a person, they did the initial setup and then they handed it over to another department and then to another department. I had to talk to four different people in four different groups. But this one, it was Tim handling the whole thing which was a pretty good thing. I was pretty happy with the process. The cost was excellent as we were able to get some perks or credits because of the amount that we financed.

At that point, one of the firms had one thing that the other two did not... Steven **, a Reverse Mortgage Specialist, And that title did not do the man justice... yes, he was an expert but he was also personable, confident, and proud of the product he was selling. Our decision on a company was made by my wife based upon those very qualities in Steve. He, in a very short time, had calmed her doubts and fears and had convinced her that, as I believed, this product was the answer to our needs. After much work gathering papers and documents, communicating by Email, faxes and phones, and a remarkably short time in our minds, my wife and I, along with Steve and his company, arrived at a Reverse Equity Mortgage that we are all happy with.

Through the efforts of a myriad of individuals at Finance of America, my wife and I accomplished our goals of remaining in our home and living happily without the cloud of financial insecurity. We both truly rest easier knowing that we are able to live comfortably and enjoy the rest of our retirement with the security that financial emergencies no longer represent choiceless choices. The type of choices that have nothing but unwanted consequences. Because of Steve and Finance of America, we have choices that allow us make choices that have positive and favorable results. Both my wife and I, with no reservations, would recommend Finance of America for reverse mortgage products to our families and friends.

But we got much more than we expected because the house went up double from the time that our last reverse mortgage was there. I was told I'd get something like $20,000 but we ended up with $31,000 which we didn’t particularly want. But if we didn’t take it, then there’s one of variable interest rate that can go up to 9%. So, they forced us to take the money which we put aside. But overall, things worked out fine.

Finance of America's rates and the terms of the mortgage were good. It could be better but with my credit rating, I'm happy with what I got. It kept me out of bankruptcy, and it took a lot of stress and pressure off. If anybody asked me who I would recommend for a reverse mortgage, Finance of America is the only company I would recommend. And I was also working with three other people but Finance of America came through. And Monica was right there all the time. They should keep her.

When I had my counseling appointment I was so well versed by Nick that I totally understood everything the counselor reviewed with me. Nick was so knowledgeable of the process that I went into the mortgage with open eyes and I am very confident that I made the right choice with Finance of America and especially with my Broker Nick **. I would and have passed his name on to my friends that are in the market for a reverse mortgage. Nick is a great asset to your company and I again say what a pleasure it is to tell you that you have a wonderful employee in Nicholas **. Thank you.

My rep Bunny was wonderful and a little more informed than most. So I asked pertinent questions. My wife had ideas and we absolutely did this together. My rates are good but it’s very, very expensive to do this and the insurance fees are high. The amount that I had to pay initially was half a percent. The rates of interest were charged should I take funds out, and I think it’s fair. At the rates they say the amount available goes up is even higher so that’s outstanding.

Access to the funds on the house is very important. I had a $250,000 credit line that if I use, I would have to pay it back. I love the facility to take the money of your house, use it without having to pay it back. The other side of the coin is it’s very expensive so I have no intentions of using it and letting interest and fees build up. But I just want it to have it there, have it available and then we put a rush on it. All in all, Finance of America Reverse is very helpful, fair, assist you in any way and explain the whole process very carefully.

In the meantime, one of Finance of America Reverse's people called me. I told him that I was going through AAG and I was not going to change in the middle of the stream. When I make a commitment, I keep my word. But he would call me every other day and ask me how things were going. He even walked me through something that AAG's reps should have been doing. When I told him that AAG wanted me to have more income, he said that I got way more net income and he didn't know why AAG was doing that.

I also told him that one of the AAG reps said that they'd give all the money to me at once but he said that that's not how it works. They'd hold back so much money and give it to me in a year. So something was going on there with AAG. Finally, I called AAG one day and they said they needed this and this now. I told them I was not sending them anything else and I was going to cancel. They got really upset. Then I called Finance of America's man and he told me that he could get things done for me real fast. So I went with them.

Finance of America Reverse did me very well and I appreciate it. Everything is going good. If any of my friends decide to do a reverse mortgage, I'd tell them not to go with AAG but to go with Finance of America. That young man told me exactly what he would do and he did it. He never lied to me or told me one thing then come back with another. He was very straightforward and got it done in a hurry, while it took AAG over three and a half months but they still wouldn't do their thing. I was also very comfortable with him. I liked that young man. He knows his business. I should have went to him in the beginning and got things done a long time ago.

People have asked me questions about going through the process and I tell them that they have to be patient. Even though they talk and think that it's going to happen next week, something comes up and they need this or that. They shouldn't expect it to happen quickly. Two months for me wasn't too bad though. I'm just one of those people who gets disappointed easily and who wants things done.

I initially talked to another bank. I got in at the tail end of the paperwork where the government came out with a program and everything had to be completed in 30 days, which I had five days to do it. I wasn’t happy with the other company so I went online and found Finance of America. The rep seemed to be very forthcoming and said that she will be there 24/7, and she was. Many times I would call her at 11 o’clock at night with questions and she was always there for me. She seemed to really care about getting the loan through. It's money in her pocket too, but she was a real go-getter.

I got the maximum loan of $250,000. The rates are about the same, but different qualifications. I obtained what I wanted to obtain and I don’t have to pay any of it back while I'm alive. I know my banker really well and he was going to give me the same amount but I was going to have to start paying it back $1100 a month immediately.

The first night, their rep went through the pros and cons with me and told me the first thing I had to do. The rep stayed in contact with me. I talked to him sometimes throughout the day and he would call and let me know what was going on. He also kept reminding us that we weren't locked into anything and that we could always say no. We had to do the counseling and they sent me a list of counseling people. The rep also got an appraiser. He was very prompt and came out. Within less than three weeks from when I called, we were ready to close. We never had to leave the house to do anything.

I really got lucky because I was not aware that the rules were changing on reverse mortgages on the second of October. We got in before that change. We were shocked at how fast it moved. But everything the rep told me that was going to happen, happened. I highly recommend them. Right now, I'm a whole lot more comfortable with the fact that should heaven forbid, something catastrophic happens, I would not have to try to do that process in the midst of it. I now feel much better about our financial situation.

I had more problems since the house has never been on the market since it was built in 1928, and those problems held up FAR. It was just some bad luck and a house that really needed to have some things done that should have been done years ago. There were things about this estate that made it harder, and they helped me through what I probably wouldn't get through otherwise. The application was quite easy and I knew what to expect. My daughter was a little leery that I went into closing without my own attorney, but I felt I'd be alright since it was government sponsored. The rate is a little higher but on the other hand, it's speculative. It was the best choice for me and I was very satisfied. I was a bit skeptical but after working with them, I feel like I totally made the right decision and I was really glad I selected them. I was in a really bad situation and they made it possible for me to get on with my life.

Customer service was fantastic. Anytime I called, somebody was right there. They knew who I was and my house. They had somebody come out, look at the house, and take pictures. They took it before a committee who looked at the house and at the comparison value of other houses in the area. They then called me up and told me I've been approved and if I wanted to go forward, I could go local here.

I live in a very small rural community in Central Oregon. They told me that they had a notary here in town that would work with me on all my paperwork, which I did. The notary sent it in and just very shortly after that, Finance of America Reverse contacted me and told me that everything was approved. They sent me forms to be able to draw money. I was extremely pleased with the interest rates, too. The banks and the credit unions can't get anywhere near it.

I had things that I wanted to do to the house for improvements and that's what I used some of the money for. I had a professional painter come and completely repaint the whole house on the outside. I had four skylights, and I had another contractor come in and take those completely off. I also had people take everything out and do caulking. I also had them re-seal everything including the light panels, and the clear skylights so I wouldn't have to worry about it or have a leak because the roof is quite high. I also spent a little money for some of my personal needs. Working with Finance of America Reverse has been very positive. I was very pleased.

The loan officer was extremely knowledgeable as well. I asked the same questions that a hundred other people had asked but I never got the sense that he was bored or that he was gonna blow me off. Sometimes I would ask pointed questions just to see what kind of response I was going to get and he was always levelled, responsive and very easy to communicate with. If I needed to ask twice, he was extremely patient. He was very personable and made me feel like I was a natural person, not just some stranger on the phone. In fact, he ended up more as a friend than a salesman. I was very comfortable working with him. He gave me the information I needed so that I could make decisions for myself. I investigated his information with other sources and it always turned out to be accurate so I felt that I could trust him.

Anybody who is looking into doing a reverse mortgage definitely needs to talk to Finance of America Reverse. Everybody wished it could be cheaper, but it was worth it for me. Everything turned out great. The only problem was the end or the first of October when everything was changing and we had to do that one class and we couldn’t get it scheduled in time. It ended up costing us a bunch of money. But that wasn’t their fault, that was because they were changing the program and there was nothing to be done about it.

I’d highly recommend Finance of America Reverse. I wanted to secure the funds out of my house so that I could reap an increase from that amount of money. I went slowly through this because in years past, reverse mortgages had a bad rap and it was because they were pushing annuities and some people got burned on that. But with Finance of America Reverse, I had a wonderful experience.

Apparently, however, there were certain rules about gifts and that seemed ridiculous to me because my sister gave me some money towards paying down the mortgage so that I would qualify the existing mortgage and it took more fooling around to make the verifications of that. I didn’t understand what it was they needed, what they needed it for. I had the money to pay down the mortgage and I offered to send them the money but they couldn’t do that. I thought that was pretty cumbersome. But the people I worked with were very pleasant, and it was pretty professionally handled. If friends are looking to do a reverse mortgage, it's a good company to deal with.

The process took 90 days because there was a deadline. I'm happy. You gave my money. However, I don’t like the interest you charge. But Uncle Sam won't knock it down. They've got so many people and so many people that read these papers and make sure that everything is in order. Everything was sent out by air and signed and explained. Oh, I would be really glad to say, “Hey, I've got someone that knows what they're doing.”

They do it in a very official way. They're not trying to make you confused. It's just nice to know I've got a couple of thousand dollars in the bank and if I want to go visit my family in Arizona, I don’t have to start pinching pennies. I hope also that they continue to give seniors the help they need when it comes to a home. It's so easy to borrow. You see the TV, get a loan from here, get a loan from there, you don’t pay closing cost, but that’s not the closure. Finance of America has helped me, helped pay my property tax and put gas on my car.

They assigned somebody to my case, Barbara, who called me and kept me informed of what was going on. She understood what I was trying to do, so she tried to work with me. She also seemed to be very knowledgeable and I felt comfortable working with her. If I had a question, she answered it. She did a pretty good job, so I was very satisfied. Their process took six weeks which was a little longer than I thought it would when I started. But once I got approved, everything went real fast and worked out favorably. I checked a couple of other places on the internet and the rate I got from them was competitive, too. So far, things are going well with Finance of America and I would tell a friend to check them out.

But the guy we worked with from Finance of America Reverse, Josh, was by far the most professional and easy to work with loan officers out of all the ones that I've dealt with. He would respond when the others would take three days to return a call. He made me feel like he was interested in my business. In fact, I switched to him. We’d already gone through the process with another company but they were taking so long that I finally gave them an ultimatum until Friday. They hadn’t done anything so I called Josh on Monday and said I wanted him because the deadline that was coming up in October already had case number which was transferred to him.

The next thing was I needed an appraisal in the house and Julie told me that I needed to have my attic appraised for something that has to do with the FHA mortgage aspect of it. I explained to her that the attic was not accessible. I don't really have an attic but a little crawl space. They sent out an appraiser who was 85 years old and could not access the attic the first time. And then, somehow they sent the guy out again, who is a big man at 85 on this little ladder. I sent Julie pictures of what he would have to do. He would have to climb up eight feet and then, on to a ledge, and then, get into the attic. And he couldn't do it and I'm holding this ladder thinking the guy is going to fall on me. What I did was I found a contractor with people who paint for me, who were willing to go come out and take pictures of the attic. So they had a painter who was able to do it. Eventually, the appraisal got done. It was much more expensive than it should have been but I think they deducted some stuff for it, which I didn't understand.

So, what I signed had to be resigned with the new documents. This would have been my fourth closing that I had done in my lifetime and I have never had any of these happened. This was a highly unpleasant process.

A gentleman came out and helped me sign the documents, and he was really good. He went through everything that we needed page-by-page. He pointed out the most important things and asked questions. Caroline was also really fun to work with. She’s a neat lady, and she bent over backwards along the situations and have pushed some things through that might not have happened as fast, or happened at all without her help. The tougher one was when it went to the underwriter. But she got their questions answered and what they needed.

One of the things that happened with the other company was they went to do a title search and they didn't know how to search. We were able to tell Finance of America Reverse that under LIBOR, our County Courthouse could go in and find the recorded deed, the death certificate of the previous owner because it was an inherited piece of property, that showed we own it free and clear. They didn't run through the same snag the other company ran into. They were straightforward. They took the information that we had and went with it. It was painless compared to the other company and it was a delight to work with them. The process took a little bit longer than what they originally thought but not more than a couple weeks longer.

They also train very well. With one person that we had at the other company, we had to go over his head. But Finance of America Reverse is pleasant to deal with, very courteous and patient to listen to my wife. Their training is more than adequate 'cause they seemed to be able to answer any questions that we had. They told us exactly what we needed to do and they gave us a timeline when they thought things were happening.

Working with Finance of America Reverse has made our lives better. We have quite a few bills and stuff that come due in the month of January. We have January financial, we have long term healthcare insurance and we have the time share property that we own in Hawaii. It makes things much easier if you have that cash set. There are other months that we're putting money back in, but when everything seems to hit at one time, we're able to square it up with all the other things that happened during the holidays. We're very happy with them and we've already referred them to a couple from lunch.

The total process took about a month and a half. I live in Ocean Shores, Washington and the two ladies that I dealt with were Midwest and their main office is back east. They had to line up for an appraiser and it took a bit of time for them to contact somebody and get them out to my place to do the appraisal. But overall, it went well. I’m happy with their rate and I would definitely recommend them to anybody else.

And I felt that I could show from the comparables that the appraiser provided that there was a much higher number that would be consistent with the current market. So, I wrote that up and I sent it to Finance of America and they passed it on and then the appraiser laughed it off. I just felt that I was not really aggressively represented by Finance of America. I went ahead of the reverse mortgage in part because of the change in the rules that was coming or that did come shortly after my case. In other words, if I had waited to get another appraisal, it would have taken a few months and the new rules would have been in effect and even if I got a higher appraisal, I would have been worse off.

Still, I would recommend to a friend provided that they check some other providers with regard to how they would represent them. When I think about this, these people are selling reverse mortgages. They’re not advocating me as a person or my case so I don’t know what I should have expected in terms of how diligent they were. I was just disappointed that I didn’t feel that they really were positive.

Patrick, the person we dealt with, took care of me and he was great. He made sure that I understood things. He knew everything he needed to know, and I didn’t have any questions about what he knew. As we’ve been thinking about it for a couple of years and we already knew we probably were going to do it, we kind of understood how they worked. So, were just guided through the process of getting it, which was good. I get my reports and everything each month. We’re all good. I’d recommend them and Patrick both easily.

However, there was paperwork that was filled out incorrectly which caused the notary to have to come here three different times to finally get what FOA was after. For instance, my wife’s name was spelled C-O-L-E-T-T-E. On several documents, it was C-O-L-L-E-T-T-E. On the same document and a different place where her name was mentioned, it was spelled correctly. Whoever does the proofing is unsatisfactory, as far as I’m concerned. And as a result, it caused us extra hassle, but it caused the notaries that were involved also.

Also, over on the East Coast, the primary paperwork was coming out for the financing. There was a deal there on a tax fund providing access to the IRS. There was a form that we had to fill out and they had again messed up our name on it and sent it. The IRS came back and said they couldn’t accept it. So, we looked at it and saw what the problem was, gave it to the agent, and he then talked to the person who was handling the paperwork and then it came back again. We resubmitted and we still got a notification back from the IRS that it wasn’t any good. But our agent was great. He did his best and got everything taken care of.

We also even learned more things that we had never realized. So, there were a lot of good things that we got out of that as well. They really care about people, and they want to make sure that they know everything. They don't put pressure on you, so it's just your total decision. If that kind of thing fits what you're trying to do, I would highly recommend them. They can help you get through the process and they were very easy to work with.

I am a very sophisticated financial guy, and the guidance that they gave me was some very good information and it was all correct and to the point. But my wife is less sophisticated and it was very comforting to her to have it explained in simpler terms than I needed. She ended up very comfortable with the idea. Finance of America was very efficient and I have recommended them.

So, I cried more tears over every company I dealt with. But Tim from Finance of America was the most wonderful. I don’t know anybody that would have stuck with me the way he did, trying to get me the reverse mortgage. He tried to think of everything that would qualify me. He said, “Call your insurance company and try to get your homeowner’s lowered.” Things that I wouldn’t think of that might get me qualified. He went above and beyond the call of duty. Apparently, it is the government that puts requirements and stipulations because I ran into the same thing with all the companies. But Tim finally got it maneuvered around enough for me to get the loan.

But Troy from Finance of America Reverse was great. He seemed honest, didn't seem to be pushing it per se, and was giving a lot in terms of what I was looking for with the company. I didn't get that do it now or never kind of thing. And he even looked at what the interest was and just made it something very simple. The presentation was very well made and the numbers made sense. He basically drew me out a plan and it showed how it works. He also brought up questions that I wouldn't have thought of asking because I just don't know. I felt very comfortable that he was covering all the bases. I got my money right away and I'm going to use that to live on.

My loan officer was Toby and he was just a nice guy. He said that he would recommend the reverse mortgage for his family. He talked to us and told us how my husband is still working now. While he's still working when you try to take money out of the 401k, it's pricing us the higher tax rate than when he is retired. And I was worried about something happening to the house and us having to pull from that 401k, right now, before he is retired. My husband is going to retire in January, and he thinks we need a new fence while I'm worried about the roof. In August, we had the house painted which was part of our reverse mortgage money. It's not cracked anymore.

Toby told us that if we needed some money, all we had to do was call and they would send the money to us. We asked for $5,000 but it took them a week. I thought they already checked me out, so it shouldn't take but a day or two for it show up in my bank account. I called them twice that week and I didn't like the fact that they weren't forthcoming. I was told that it could take up to seven working days. And that's a long time. But that's the only thing that I was not really happy about regarding this whole experience. All in all, I would recommend them.

If we had asked a question in the afternoon and Matt didn't have time in the office, he would make time in the evening to call us back. He would just go out of his way to make sure that everything was going right. We also had other people that we talked to. A lady, like a counselor, made sure that we knew what we were doing, which most of the time we don't.

The only problem that we have is right now, we had applied for the remainder of the money that we would be able to take out of the fund this year. And we have written a letter and sent it. And we never heard back. And then my husband finally called and they said, “You didn't specify exactly how much money", to which my husband answered, “He did know but I didn't have access to that". So then, we faxed them a letter and that still didn't help, and we're still waiting for our money. It has been a week and a half, and there were certain things that needed to be paid because of this. So it's been very frustrating with that. I don't understand that because it's our money. And I don't understand why they are dragging their heels on it. But, that's the only frustrating thing that we have really had. I need to call Matt.

The finance officer that helped me was just absolutely great. She didn't try to skirt around things and she would call and keep me updated on how things were going. She would explain stuff and if she had any doubt she would go to her boss or the people above her. And she usually had kind of everything taken care of. They gave me a lot of insight into exactly what was going on and the benefits. They had details down. I was apprehensive on doing the mortgage for a while and they talked with me. They explained stuff to me that I had misinterpreted and I just felt very comfortable with working with them. I would recommend them to anybody.

One of the biggest things why I selected Finance of America was the lady that I talked to initially. She was one of the first to call me because I asked for quotes She, by far, had the most complete presentation of any of them. She was just awesome and the rates were good. The loan officer always followed up with emails when she would tell us stuff. She was just so efficient and completely gave us all the information that we needed so much more than anyone else. She was personally a very accommodating person. I really liked her demeanor and personality. She was just really exactly what we needed and she did exactly what she said she would. We had all the information and she said we'd close within 30 days. Then we closed within two weeks.

They were the ones that paid my mortgage and my line of credit off that I had with Deutsche bank, which was totaled $38,000. The house was appraised at $130,000 and I was supposed to have it set up where they were going to pay my taxes and my insurance out of the money I had coming. But I noticed that they’re charging me for insurance. And when I checked the other day to see what my line of credit was with them, after all was said and done, it was $126.00. Initially, they talked like I was going to have a big line of credit since I only owed less than $40,000. But now they're saying that I don’t have any line of credit at all. It was $74,000 that was going to be left over from paying the loan off and I don't know where all that money is.

I’ve talked to my banker about it and he said that’s impossible. I also played golf with the fellow that teaches real estate law and I gave him the contract to look at. Just by glancing at it, he asked how many people were at the closing and I said there were two, me and the notary public. He said he didn't think they could do that. And the more people I talked to and asked questions about the contract, the more I find out that it’s not right.

This has only been going on for four months and I called the agent that dealt with me through Finance of America. She wasn’t in the office so the rep I got gave me a number to call that was her boss. I haven’t called him yet because I was waiting to get back with some other people that were checking into the contract for me. In fact, my bank and the real estate professor that teaches law was going to do some checking for me. But they don’t think it’s right and the way it was described to me is not what it was supposed to have been.

While we were processing the reverse mortgage, my agent connected me to the right people that got things taken care of. When I had to do take a correspondence course for the HUD, it was hard to find somebody in the state of Indiana. I called some people here in Indiana but they wouldn’t do it because they wouldn’t accept any clients outside their county. My agent told me that I could put that on the closing cost and it was going to be extra an $125. That had to be paid before my account would go to closing and she paid $125 of the appraisal. So they were nice people to talk to but I think I got screwed. It would be my own fault because I didn’t read every word in the contract that I signed. Still, I’m not very happy with Finance of America Reverse.

The loan process wasn’t a rushed through ordeal. The loan officer was very informative, thorough and understanding, and took quite a bit of time with me, and didn’t rush me through the questionnaire. But the process took me a while because, when I first applied for the reverse mortgage, I wasn’t eligible for it. So, the loan officer called me several times to go over things with me. When I finally became eligible, the loan officer called me back and things went rather smoothly.

She was very interested in what motivated me and what things I could benefit from and how it would help me or give me more peace or assurance of things. She wanted to know my background and how it would fit in the program and all those things that seemed to demonstrate her interest in me as a potential customer more than just a casual acquaintance for the purpose of earning a commission. And she was knowledgeable. She could describe the program and she helped me understand what I could and should expect. There are some consequences but she gives the details of how the program works and I could feel free to ask her anything. But she was very happy to answer my questions in a very kind and understanding way and helped me to understand what I was doing and to confirm that it was what I wanted to do.

I got the basic questions and answers, but there were some follow-up questions. I’m kind of accustomed from my business background that when you make your sale, you give somebody a copy of the receipt. And it concerned me a little bit because I signed my house away and I really wanted to know that whoever was going to be my contact, that they could tell me what was the balance of my account. I was also interested in knowing if I was I going to be paid right way in the event I was interested in withdrawing some money. As it turned out, I needed to process a request and it was paid in a couple of weeks, which was pretty timely.

I wasn’t desperate for the money but I was interested in the process. And so, it would have been nice to get that assured because I really had to wait for it to play out. But it’s all been excellent and I'm glad I did it. And may everybody find somebody as nice as my consultant. I was able to work through everything pretty well to a reasonable end with her expertise. When I was younger and hiring people to help me do things with the businesses I was in, I would’ve liked to have run across Carol because she did an excellent job.

I initially started out with a company called AAG who is a competitor but I fired them because they’ve done such a lousy job and they’ve strung me along for five weeks. I'm 81 years old and I don’t have too much time to be dragging my feet around here and I let them know that, but it didn’t seem to make any difference to them. So I went to somebody that took that into consideration. I still wanted to follow through with my plan to do what I wanted to do and when I was online, I happened to see Finance of America Reverse's thing. I did a little research on them and they were very good with their references. So I took a chance and I called. Amy happened to be working that Sunday and she answered the phone.

I told her what was going on, that I had the house evaluated and I paid for it. I asked if they were going to turn that house evaluation over to the others because that's what AAG told me, and she said they were not going to do that. She said by law AAG had to give me the evaluation if I requested it. She knew they couldn’t keep it. So, we used the same assessment because it's current and for her business. After that, she worked her tail off and kept me well-informed on everything that was going on. Whether I asked or not, she let me know via emails and she's done a very good job. As a matter of fact, when we got ready to finalize everything, my wife and I went up to her place and we took her out to lunch as a show of appreciation.

All the people that she had helping her do these things were also very compliant with everything because I've got one large, humongous living trust and that thing had to be xeroxed. It was part of the deal and I didn’t want to fool with it but they took care of that. That was teamwork right there. Everything went as prescribed and I'm happy and satisfied. I would recommend them to anybody.

Everything went well with Finance of America Revers until they started dealing with the banks in Atlanta. I signed and filled out papers to tell them to send the installment checks by wire to the banks. It was supposed to be automatic deposits and the first bank they dealt with sent the check by FedEx to my mailbox. It went to another house three blocks away and I was lucky that I got it. It's a very large deposit. So my financial consultant changed banks but I don’t know yet. There's going to be another couple of months where I can get the next installment. So hopefully, it's corrected and it'll be going to the bank and not to the neighbor next door. Other than that, I'd recommend my financial consultant. In fact, two neighbors have already considered contacting him if they decide they would do the same thing.

Josh, the loan officer, was very friendly and informative, and he answered all of our questions and then some. He gave us an estimate of the cash that we could get from using their company and it was three times more than what we could get through AAG. That sounded too good to be true, but it turned out to be right on the money. Then we encountered something else that we thought might be going wrong. Josh said that they would probably have to pay our property taxes because it was going to be due in less than 90 days. So, we asked him if we would then be getting $3,000 less in cash, but he said, “No. We’ll just got cut our fees more and we’ll take care of it.” They paid our property taxes and we still got the amount that he had quoted to us initially.

We only had one confusing aspect of the whole process when the notary was out here and some of the numbers weren’t the same as what Josh had emailed to us. But he had given us his cell phone number and we were able to call him at home. He was available and he answered our questions. Josh was great and we’ve already recommended him to my sister-in-law. We don’t have children and grandchildren, so we’re not trying to leave a big legacy to anybody in need when we die and we just want to be comfortable, and it's the same way with my sister-in-law.

I have a couple of girlfriends who said at lunch that they didn’t want to do a reverse mortgage since it was just a scam, but I told them that it’s a good deal. One of them commented that her co-worker was probably going to lose her house since she got a reverse mortgage and she can’t keep the house up because her husband’s not working, so the mortgage company is going to take the house, kick her out, and put her out on the street, unless she gets the house painted. I pointed out that they can’t do that and the only way they can take her house is if she doesn’t pay her property taxes and keep up the mortgage insurance.

Before we got our reverse mortgage from Finance of America, we had to go through counselling with somebody that’s independent of them. There’s a whole list of FHA-approved companies that counsel consumers and the latter must first get a certificate that they've gone through counseling before they can get a reverse mortgage. So, my friend's co-worker couldn’t have gotten a reverse mortgage unless she’d gone through counseling and then she would have known that wasn't true.

The people at Finance of America explained things well and followed through on their promises, and there was no pressure. The loan process went very smoothly and everything worked out all the way through. It was a speedy process whereby we received all that we could have asked for and more and it was a better experience than we expected to have.

One of the things that needs to be looked at when you are borrowing money on your property and going to this is the one-year thing for withdrawals. They put it into whatever you want to put it in. You ought to be able to go in there and get that money, all of it or parts of it. I can't see why it wants a year to go, because is it going to help you out when you're working on a project that cost more than what your situation is? And you can't go back to them and get it out until your anniversary. That stinks. You have to go borrow money from somebody else and wait on it. That's not cool. For instance, I was supposed to get money to put a roof on my house and do all of that. But I couldn't get off enough money, and the guy who appraised my property didn't give a good appraisal. I got the same appraisal from a tax assessor. So, why should I have to get them $500 or $600? I’m dissatisfied because I already know what the city appraised my property for.