There have been numerous amounts of investigations into reverse mortgage lenders, brokers, & companies who are not putting their clients' best interests first. Alarmingly, some are actually putting their own bank account before anything else. There have been many investigations and as a result, prosecutions of those who are knowingly taking advantage of homeowners over the age of 62 seeking additional funds.
Here is a prime example of this taking place to the tune of 2.5 million dollars in Florida. If this homeowner seeking a reverse mortgage in Florida utilized a team who has done due diligence on the companies they work with, this incident could have never occured. If you wish to have a team of experts do the research for you, feel free to visit: http://www.shopreversemortgages.com/florida/
Other disreputable reverse mortgage companies or lenders are secretely adding in an annuity sales contract in the reverse mortgage closing documents. Certain annuities pay outrageously high commissions and these are just the type of annuities homeowners are being secretely forced to sign.
So how does one ensure they do not fall victim to a disreputable reverse mortgage company? There are a few things you can do which we will share within this post.
3 Tips to Protect Yourself from Bad Reverse Mortgage Lenders
- Be sure to do a Google search with the companies name. If there are any people who feel they have been ripped off, at least one would have utilized a website like ripoff report or pissed consumer. These portals allow consumers to complain about a business. Typically, the users will go into great detail as to why they feel they were ripped off and/or not satisfied. Critical Point: Make sure you go to Page 2 to Page 3 of Google. This is because some companies will attempt to lower their bad reviews by paying a company to help them out. This is known as reputation management.
- Head over to the BBB. That is the Better Business Bureau. Just like school they utilize a simple grading school from A to F. A being the best. F being the worst. Use your judgement to see how many complaints the company has. Just keep in mind, even Walmart has 1,000s of complaints so the size of the reverse mortgage lender or reverse mortgage company should be taken into account.
- You can head over to your State's Attorney General website and do a search for that company name. If there is any active investigation, you will likely find them appear on the website. This is most damaging find of them all. There is typically no "reason" a company would be found on this website unless they are up to no good. So if the company you are considering is found here, run fast.
While Shop Reverse Mortgages is in the process of obtaining its licensing, the team of specialists would be more than happy to refer you to reverse mortgage lenders and companies which have been around for many years without any serious complaints. This removes the stressful part of doing due diligence.
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