Mom is 91, and mentally intact, but at her age, anything can happen. She's a very pleasant lady and we get along well. I've had POA for 5 years. I've been living with her for 3.5 years since she can no longer be alone, and I have been renting out my condo. I work from home.
I now want to downsize her out of her house and have her move in with me to the condo. That way we could put the house proceeds in a healthcare trust and use her monthly income to assist with hiring in some home healthcare, so I am not so housebound. Currently her income largely goes to keeping her house going.
Is this a wise plan? She is agreeable with the idea. She has no other assets.
I must say, this is all very eyeopening. When you're young, you never think of this stuff!!! Ignorance is definitely bliss.
Example, I plan to give my sig other's grand-daughters [ages 8 and 10] my old coin collection and my old stamp book collection, as I was their age when I first got interested. Hopefully they will have fun collecting.
So do you have a very clear figures from the RM as to what the costs would be for changing the terms of the RM & canceling the RM (which are usually based on the homeowners death)? If not, I'd suggest you get in writing from the RM holder what the payoff amount due to the RM would be. Then secondly I'd speak with a couple of Realtors to get comps for your mom's property to see what it would possible sell for & the days on market (the DOM) and what her proceeds could realistically be.
The DOM is important as there will be costs to sell mom's place. If you all find that the utilities need to be on 24/7; yard much more maintained; insurance rider place; having the house prettied up, painted or stage or whatever to make it market ready, etc, well all that adds up. If it runs say an add'l $ 600 a month, then the DOM is going to be mucho importante. Then take all the figures to see where you stand as to just how much $$ mom may realistically have.
And I'd do this BEFORE paying 10K to the CC company cause once that 10K is paid, it is gone.
If they live long enough, unless they are generationally wealthy, they are going to run out of money eventually & the family member caregiver is going to run out of steam (& humor). It's good you are thinking about all this now. Health care costs are just staggering.
But, it won't all fit in my condo, so Mom will have to part with some things, or we'll have to stick stuff in storage.
I'm downsizing too. Wish Mom had done the same after Dad died 20+ yrs ago!
or has mom already done the RM?
My Dad is still trying to get me or my sig other to shimmy up into the attic opening to bring down boxes of books and paperwork.... not in your life will we climb up there, that ship had sailed some time ago. Why on earth Dad put stuff up there is beyond me when they have a perfectly good basement for storage. With the heat here in the summer, the papers and books probably have crumbled if the mice didn't get to it first for nesting material. Dad said he thinks his stamp book from childhood is up here... it will be so sad if it is ruined.
In fact I have started to downsize inside myself. Got rid of half my books. It wasn't easy to say goodbye to them last month but now I don't miss them at all.
I agree to approach slowly. We've been talking about making this move for many months now. The UTI crisis made me realize what an albatross her home could become. Yes, I guess she could stay in it indefinitely (until the equity line is used up), but if she suddenly needs an NH or ALF, the house would have to be sold urgently and I don't want to have to go through that if I don't have to. I'll be under enough stress. And I can't afford to pay off her reverse mortgage to allow her to keep the home.
Check with the mortgage company to see what happens if your Mom leaves that house... see how much time she has to sell the house... and get a good Realtor and a Settlement Company who both understand how reverse mortgages work. The Reverse Mortgage won't affect the Buyer.
Here's hoping for a really smooth sell and move :)