Have you gone out to You Tube and checked out the videos about reverse mortgages? They range from silly to down-right scary and everywhere in between but are these video segments a good sales tool or just someone that is bored trying to get their fifteen minutes of You Tube fame? Well, here is our shameless attempt.

The following project was the (failed) result of an attempt at completing a cheap television commercial to run in our local market that was completed at the end of 2007 and early 2008. We used some stock video from IStockPhoto, Sony Media’s Vegas Studio, and my laptop for editing and sound recording. For a couple of reasons, we chose not to proceed and complete the project to air on television, so the following could be considered a blooper real. Some of my former employees and myself are fans of the television show ‘24’ and missed having Jack Bauer explain that we’re constantly running out of time.

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Last week a special committee formed by the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association met to establish a Certified Reverse Mortgage Professional designation program.  The designation is designed for all professionals and will require that they pass an exam to ensure they have sufficient knowledge of reverse mortgage lending practices.

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WBBM Chicago is reporting an interesting story about a former northwest Indiana town employee who stole nearly $300,000 from the state.  Lake Superior Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak didn’t give Rosemary Barath, 68, of Merrillville, Indiana prison time, in part because she has no prior criminal convictions and has repaid $80,000 of the amount she stole, but he is requiring the woman take out a reverse mortgage.

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A few reverse mortgage headlines from the week:

• Reverse mortgages in Barbados to be discussed (Advocate)
• Precision Funding Group Sees Opportunity For Clients (Courier Post)
• Generation Mortgage to be featured on Life and Leisure Television (EmailWire)
• Keeping Faith In A Bad Economy (NJ.com)

Have a great weekend!

The Urban Institute recently published a report which discuses how reverse mortgages may appeal to certain demographics of people over others.  By using data from the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS), the Washington, DC based institute was able to estimate the potential increase in annual household income a reverse mortgage can provide different groups of people.     

Overall, the HRS data showed that home equity values have increased dramatically for older households from 1998 to 2006.  However, increases for homeowners has been uneven, favoring whites and Hispanics relative to blacks, and high-income homeowners relative to those in lower-income brackets.  Because of this, the Urban Institute found that homeowners in the lowest income groups would receive relatively higher percentage income gains from reverse mortgages, as would single homeowners over married couples. 

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