Scot

Husband - Wife - both late 50's....Husband was self employed and had a stroke about 9 months ago... no savings other than about $15k which is now pretty much gone..... they applied for disability but that doesn't cover everything.

He is pretty much bed ridden / wheel chair / couch. Needs help to do just about anything. They live in a $225k house, but owe ~ $90k on their mortgage.

She doesn't work....they had a book store that really didn't make $ so they closed it right after the stroke.

They want to stay in the current house since they have lived there for 30+ years.

Any suggestions to help them? The wife wants to get a job, but unfort 60 year old's don't normally get high paying, light hour jobs.

If they were older, maybe a reverse mortgage would work? (i don't know much about reverse mortgages)... They are fairly fit, so I would expect them to live for at least 20 years...??

Their daughter doesn't make enough $ to help them and their son is probably way worse off than the parents when it comes to $...

Nin009

Well, the easy answer is a home equity loan. With $135k in equity, it shouldn't be too tough to find a bank.

Next, if they are truly in dire financial straights, they need to make some tough choices. Living in the same house for 30 years is sweet, but when you can't put food on the table, maybe the sentimental value can be a bit overrated.

It doesn't sound to me like they are too hard off yet, more that they aren't ready to accept their new financial situation.

Scot

they are going through bankruptcy, but are trying to keep the house out.... if they got a home equity loan that would just be one more payment..... their income is very limited....basically his disability...which I would guess at about $1000 a month??? I am not sure how she would qualify.... their credit is pretty crappy too.

1st mortgage, Property taxes, insurance, car insurance,etc... is easily more than that.....

Austblue

I've read some of your threads and know that you're into real estate, so could you buy the house off them and rent it back to them? That would leave them 135K in the black which should be enough to cover their rent and living expenses could come out of their pension.

Im not sure how it works over there but for our pension you cant have too many assets so they may need to sort out a trust with the kids that only they have access to.

CraigLieberman

Have them look into a reverse mortgage...its a bit of a last resort, but it'll keep them in their house...it won't leave anything to their heirs, but again, they'll stay in their house.

jmc1971

It would seem that they shouldn't do anything with the house until the bankruptcy proceeding is over--otherwise whatever they accomplish in the way of becoming more liquid may simply go to the bankruptcy trustee (assuming that's how it works in PA??).

Also, from what I understand, reverse mtgs generally have to be first mtgs. They'd have to pay off the existing mtg with the reverse mtg. They may not get an acceptable interest rate if their credit is shot. Plus they're not very old. If they have a good rate now, then an equity line may be a better idea, like Nin009 said. They could invest the money, but there's just not enough there to use the interest to pay the debt and their other expenses. It would be unwise to use an equity line to live off of---that's just amassing more debt they can't pay, plus it will eventually max out.

Sounds like they're going to have to downsize and look into getting SSI for the husband and whatever other state/federal assistance programs they could qualify for.

2002S2000

Unfortunatley, from what I've read about reverse mortgage. The one main qualifer is that both borrowers have to be at least 62 years young.

Scot

thanks for the idea's guys....i have thought about trying to buy their house and letting them live there, but i don't have $200k in cash that I want to dump into their house........ then wait 10-20-30 years for them to get out of it.... i am nice, but not that nice.

I think they should just move to a smaller house...utility bills would be cheaper, taxes cheaper, etc...... but they really seem to want to stay in this house.

Officer_down

Life is full of unexpectancies. Sometimes you can't have or keep what you want. I think they should sell the house, pay off the mortgage if necessary, then find some way to invest the remaining money and live conservatively.

Scot

They are currently consulting my wife about a new mortgage for their current house at a fixed interest rate....apparently they have a 9% mortgage now........ i feel sorry for them because just a year ago everything was fairly smooth (poor credit, but they had a life).... now the mom just takes care of the dad 24/7 which would really suck the life out of you i would imagine!!!!!