Using a Reverse Mortgage Calculator to See How Much You Can Get

While by no means a definitive answer, a reverse mortgage calculator can give you a good idea of ​​how much money you could unlock from your home. What follows is a brief explanation of how they work and which ones are reliable.

A reverse mortgage calculator is a fairly sophisticated tool that can calculate how much money a senior can expect to get when they take out this type of loan. The software uses the same criteria that any broker would use. The parameters used to make the calculation are the location of your home, its value, the amount of mortgage you still owe, mortgage payments, current interest rates, and the dates of birth of the borrower and co-borrower (if any). ).

Basically, the higher the equity in the home and the older your age, the more you can borrow. Location is important as the HECM reverse mortgage program has limits on the amount that can be lent and these vary by county – rural areas generally receive less than urban areas. The current maximum amount ranges from $200,160 to $362,790. Proprietary programs are less concerned with location and more concerned with share value and the age of the borrower.

This brings us to another point about which reverse mortgage calculator to use. They will all give you the amount you can borrow against a HECM or Home Keeper program as these are nationally government supported programs. However, when using a calculator on a proprietary program lender’s website, the third amount displayed will be for your own product. You won’t get figures for all the proprietary programs available, which makes sense since each company will have their own way of determining how much they’d be willing to lend you.

The following are some of the biggest proprietary programs available today; everyone has their own calculator.

Financial Freedom offers a product called Cash Account Advantage.
Wells Fargo does not have its own product but is an authorized agent for Financial Freedom.
Generation Mortgage offers a program called Generation Plus.
Bank of America offers the Independence Plan.
Countrywide offers the Simple Equity program.
BNY offers two: the Prime Advantage Fixed-Rate Reverse Mortgage and the Prime Advantage Adjustable-Rate Mortgage.

If you’re just interested in getting a HECM or Home Keeper, the best reverse mortgage calculator to use is the AARP or National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) found on each organization’s website. Both give very precise estimates and the illustrative amounts are identical no matter which one you use. In addition, the figures shown break down the different payment options you can receive; lump sum, line of credit or fixed monthly payments.

The calculators for the jumbo programs will also illustrate the amounts you could receive for the HECM and Home Keeper programs, but I have found them to be slightly less accurate. However, you would really only use these calculators to determine the amount you would receive for a jumbo loan.

Of the jumbo loan calculators, Financial Freedom is the most widely available on the net, which is not too surprising as it is the most popular jumbo program on the market today.

Finally, you just need to use a reverse mortgage calculator to give you an indication of how much you would receive. To get accurate figures, you should talk to a local broker.