Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Interviews
Information below for Reverse Mortgage Counseling
Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) Face-to-Face Interviews
This Mortgagee Letter informs Federal Housing Administration (FHA) approved lenders and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved housing counseling agencies that FHA will now allow prospective HECM borrowers the option to meet face-to-face with the lender and/or HECM counselor or to participate in loan origination
and counseling activities by telephone. This new policy is effective immediately.
Prior to this change, HUD HECM loan origination procedures, as represented by Mortgagee Letters 00-10, 04-25 and 04-48, has been that prospective HECM borrowers must make every effort to meet face-to-face with either a housing counseling agency approved to provide HECM counseling or a mortgage lender approved to originate HECM loans. While FHA prefers that all prospective HECM borrowers participate in face-to-face interviews with a HECM lender and counselor, it has come to the attention of the Department that this procedure may create a hardship for some prospective HECM borrowers, particularly those living in rural areas or with limited mobility.
All HECM lenders and counselors should have the capacity to conduct face-to-face interviews with all prospective HECM borrowers and must routinely offer to conduct face to-face loan applications or counseling respectively. However, for those borrowers who choose to forego a face-to-face interview, the loan application, counseling or both, may be performed by telephone.
A prospective HECM borrower who decides to forego participation in a face-to-face interview will still be required to fulfill FHAs mandatory HECM counseling requirement by
completing a telephone counseling session offered by a local agency approved by HUD to
provide HECM counseling or by one of HUDs approved HECM counseling networks. Consumers can access these networks through the following toll-free numbers, which are
also listed on HUDs website:
AARP 1-800-209-8085
National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) 1-866-698-6322
Money Management International (MMI) 1-877-908-2227
Regardless of whether a counseling session is completed face-to-face or via telephone, a HECM counseling certificate must be signed by both the counselor and the prospective borrower and included in the associated lenders file.
If you have any questions regarding this Mortgagee Letter, please call FHAs Resource Center at: 1-800-CALL-FHA (1-800-225-5342), and select Option 2.
Source: HUD.gov
If you would like to speak with a Reverse Mortgage Loan Officer, please call 1-888-973-8377. They would be glad to answer any questions you might have.
