Liberty Reverse Mortgage Reviews

I have had the reverse mortgage for more than 14 years and he said my house probably was worth more money than it was 17 years ago. So I agreed to have somebody come out and it was indeed worth a lot more money! So they wanted a second appraisal. But I told them that since I paid for one appraisal, I was not paying for a second appraisal because it was expensive. It was $545 to have this man come in here and I don't think he was here 15 minutes. So they said, I didn't have to pay for it. They just said it was such a huge jump and they wanted to verify. So I had a second person come out and the amount he came up with was very close to what Eric gave us.

But the second man who came was strange. He called and I set up the appointment for 11 o'clock. He said he'd call me when he gets to my house. So I get a phone call and he said he was outside, but he said he was not coming in. He said he rang the doorbell and the dog started barking and he was not coming in a house with a dog. But I told him that I didn't have a dog. he insisted that there was a dog barking and I told him that he was at the wrong house. He said he was at 256 and I told him that that was my house number but I bet he was not on Dorchester Road. I told him to look at the street sign and that if he was on Manchester, he was one block away from me. I'm in Dorchester and I'm the only house on the block that has stairs parallel to the driveway. And there are driveway lights. Two minutes later, he was ringing the doorbell.

So once that was done and the paperwork was simple. A young woman came over here and I signed all the papers. She was here on time. Once that was done, I got a letter in the mail where I got confirmation that it was all taken care of and that the money was available any time I wanted to use it. But so far, I haven't touched it. All in all, I was very satisfied with the way that the process was handled. I've gotten some updates, too.

It was more stressful dealing with the other people than it was dealing with Liberty. Marie knew what she was doing. I could send her an email but she didn't just send me an email response. She would call me and ask what was up and why I was concerned. And we would go over it again. She even would text me. If I text her, she would call me on the phone instead of texting me back. She acted like she was a personal friend. She had an interest in us, not just as customers, but as people, which was what made the difference. Maybe not everybody at Liberty Mortgage is as good as Marie but I only dealt with her. She never passed me off to anybody else.

I had pursued two other reverse mortgage companies in my investigation and ultimately, the reason why I chose Liberty Mortgage was because of her and how thorough she was. She was understanding and on top of things. She would call just to make sure everything was going well. She was one of the first people that I called and then, we had a financial adviser who recommended somebody else who was local to our area. I started dealing with that individual and during that time, I also pursued another reverse mortgage company, AAG. That man, although he was nice, was a fast talker. Then the company, WSFS, wanted to charge me a $6,000 origination fee, which was not a requirement. I realized that they were duping me.

The counseling process said that one of the charges that is a negotiable fee is the origination fee. The WSFS person came to my house and we went through everything. She didn't tell me the truth. If she had said that they have to charge me the origination fee because that's how she makes her commission, I probably would have considered going with them. But she didn't. She said that that was mandatory. And that's when that all broke down. I went back to Liberty Mortgage and Marie told me that they don't charge an origination fee. And in the end, they didn't. I started the process of looking into this probably in May and ultimately, at the end of September, it came to fruition. But it wasn't that it took that long for Liberty Mortgage to do it. It's just that's the length of time it took until we got through the whole process.

The guidance from Liberty was beyond excellent. We have an investment and in the process of doing this, our financial adviser said that it was probably, in the end, a much better thing for us to do. We aren't going to use the money for a few years because my husband is still working but if we withdraw money from our reverse mortgage, we don't pay taxes on it. So, that means that we can keep our investment intact and only have to take out the required minimum distribution every year and pay taxes on that rather than having to draw down our investment and pay all those taxes at one time. So, that's how it worked out. It was great this way.

I'm very happy with the rate and terms. Everything Marie has told me so far has come to fruition. I told her that maybe I shouldn't do this and wait a couple of years. She told me that if I wait a couple of years, I don't know how things are going to change in a few years with the market not just the economy, but with the way things are with the country. Right now, I know how things are. She had a point. She asked if I was going to be able to handle that if my cancer came back, in addition to having to go through chemo again. She wasn't pushy. She was just showing me the advantages and she was wonderful. I've sent her a letter and a text but she doesn’t realize what an impact she had on us doing this. She just thought that she was just doing her job, but she was doing way more than her job.

I'm computer-savvy, so uploading the documents was not hard for me at all. Because if there were documents that I needed to electronically sign, I already knew how to do that. I knew how to scan documents in and send them back by email. It was not a hardship for me. It would be difficult for some other people, maybe, who are older and have never been in a business environment, so they didn't know how to do that. That could have been a real stretch for some people, especially because you're doing it all remotely. You don't have somebody to come to your house.

When I got my reverse mortgage, it was with MiMortgage but as soon as you close, they automatically sell it to someone else. Then I found out I was with PHH Mortgage that I didn't care for. They just changed their name, which I found out while I was doing the process about four months ago with Liberty. They were under the same umbrella. I started the process online, but I chose to email things to them because I'm not good at uploading files. We did our docs and everything online, but the process that they sent me through was fine. We were able to get it together and done in a timely manner.

The lending process with the ladies that I worked with at Liberty was great. Everything was sufficient. I was happy with my main loan officer and the other one that ended up taking over things after the first lady prepped everything and got everything ready to get everything finished off with the loan. Both of them were very sufficient, and they answered all my questions. We were able to get things done a lot faster than the previous one.

Overall, it was a good experience. It was at a time where I needed the extra cash out of my equity to take care of some major business. The air conditioning system went out. So, I was able to get help with that right away without spending my personal money that I needed to keep the bills. So, it was right on time for me. I wasn't so happy with the price to do the loan because I thought it was a lot. But I checked into other lenders and it was about what most people charge for the origination fee.

The two loan advisors that I had were pleasant, patient and understanding. And if I had any questions about what I was looking for, they helped all that a person could help from a distance like saying, "I'll come help you look for it." They could very well do that. But they kept it from being an arduous thing to do. That made a lot of difference for their company. The fact that they were pleasant, and we could find something to laugh about was very nice. It made it possible to say I enjoyed working with them when it was such a government-oriented thing. All these requirements still with the way they personally represented their company, they knew what they were doing and knew what it took. So, they were very nice to work with. It became an interesting project to me just to see how to do it.

They knew what it was about and could help what to look for. And if I had a question of, "Why do I need this or that or something else," they knew the answers of why. I'm glad to pass the word along to people that I would recommend the reverse mortgage. I would be glad to give them their name and number to use. Because I can trust that they would treat the next person as nice as they did me. And I felt like I became friends with them. It was very nice for me. I enjoyed feeling like we had become friends. So, it was a pleasant experience when you consider what all is involved. They had very nice personalities and had a compassionate way of working with their client in a very professional way. That was the way it would be done. They could add their own personality that was helpful.

I went forward with her. With all the complexities, with all the different terms and the rest of it, you don't always get a clear answer, and in her case, everything I asked was answered carefully and clearly. So, I have nothing but good stuff to say about Liz. As far as the application and underwriting process, they were pretty timely with whatever was in the procedure. Where I had to produce some answers to the questions, I did that quickly and they responded back quickly. So the whole process, from beginning of January to the end of January, I got it all locked up by then.

Liz is a very easy person to talk to, and very understanding that, "Hey, this guy isn't aware of all the complexities of this stuff. He did it 10 years ago, but we're doing it now again." It was a good process. I received my first check right after the first of the month. When I got the check, we had already made all the progress. I explained to Liz the reason I'm considering doing this was I'm nearing the end of my original reverse mortgage, and I'm approaching 90 years of age. And what I'm trying to arrange is, make sure I get three or four more years out of a refi because it's my goal not to have to move at my age and take everything I own and figure out what to do with it.

Then, they only gave me 14 and the rep said FHA would only allow me to take a portion of it at a time. It was some flimsy excuse about getting in debt or overextending yourself. It didn't matter that I was using it for home improvement and that I could show receipts of what I was using it for or anything. I was counting on more, at least the 30,000. I was planning on paying off my car and my credit cards and I only got to pay off my credit card, which I've been living on for two and half months because I was waiting for this money. I ended up having to put a new roof on the house and a new air conditioner. So the equity I thought I had or the money I thought I had left over, I ended up spending. When they reappraised it, it did show I had equity, but I don't get it. I get it next year.

One more thing is that the first appraisal came back higher than they expected so they had a second appraisal. Nobody told me they would take the lowest of the two. But the first one had made me fix things. They had made me put in a carbon monoxide detector and it's an all electric house and they made me put in 3 GFIs. They made me do things, but then they didn't go with that appraisal. They did a second appraisal that came back with 12,000 difference. Other than those, they were good as far as overall goes.

Martin, my husband, wanted to make a payment and we were uncertain because we knew that Liberty was going through a change of company or name, and she acted like we were asking for something that was a big deal. We wanted to make sure that it got in before this year because of taxes and it made a significant financial difference to us, and she was annoyed by us bothering her with that. She was friendly enough. It was just that she spoke to me like we were stupid, and we’re not. She was not as polite as she could have been and was a little impatient. I wish that we had done a little more exploring before we went all the way in with Liberty. We might have gotten a better rate someplace else. People should look around if they’re thinking of using Liberty.

Liberty kept in contact all the time. And if I had to call them, they answered. That wasn't a problem. Christina and Sabrina were excellent. My experience made life a lot easier. I don't have to worry towards the end of the month, though, making sure I have enough cash in there to make the mortgage payment. I'd tell others, "If this is what you wanna do, this is the place to go."