What’s Up with Mortgage Rates?

Have we seen the worst of mortgage rate hikes? Are rates leveling off?

What does that mean for the market as we head into the spring season? Hi, I'm Rob West. Those are all questions we'd like answered, especially if you're thinking about buying or selling a home, and we know just the guy to do it. We'll talk to Dale Vermillion today to find out what's up with mortgage rates, and then it's on to your questions at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, our friend Dale Vermillion is back with us today. He's author of The Mortgage Maze, The Simple Truth About Financing Your Home. Dale, always great to have you with us, my friend. Great to be here, Rob.

Thank you so much. Dale, how would you describe the trend in mortgage rates these days? And I guess the follow on to that is, is there one? Yeah, you know, it's actually more stable than it's been in some time. Last year was incredibly volatile. As you know, at the end of last year, we were at one point almost over 8%. It steadily climbed down at the end of last year, beginning of this year, and you know, it's been bouncing around the six and a quarter to six and a half rate mark pretty steadily. So we believe it's going to kind of stay there and then slowly climb down over the next several months until the end of the year.

Yeah. The Fed is expected to start lowering interest rates, perhaps starting next month. They've said maybe three decreases in 2024. Some analysts say it could be as many as six times totaling one and a quarter percent in either of those scenarios. What impact might this have on mortgage rates? You know, it's interesting because the Fed rate doesn't have a direct correlation to mortgage rates. In fact, sometimes when the Fed rate goes down, mortgage rates go up and vice versa.

But it does with that large of a drop. We will see an improvement in mortgage rates. Fannie Mae just came out and announced that they believe that rates will be under 6%. Most of the analysts I talk to say rates will be under 6% by the end of this year. And what really is going to drive that more than anything is inflation. As inflation continues to drop and the bond market continues to improve, that's what we're going to see as improvements.

Yeah. What about home values, Dale? What do you think will happen with home values in the months ahead? You know, they are anticipating this year.

The projection just came out for 2024. We believe that it's going to be about a 3.2% increase this year compared to the 7.1% we saw in 2023. Part of that's because listing prices are going to drop this year to accommodate for affordability so that will have an impact on values. But we're still seeing prices go up. So still a good time to buy. Yeah.

So just appreciating a little bit slower. Certainly not seeing any depreciation in home values. What about inventory, Dale? I know this has been one of the issues that the lack of inventory has kept home prices up.

Yeah. You know, we saw at the end of January that inventory was up to 506,000. If you compare that to last year, it was only 472,000 and the low in 2023 was 240,000.

So it's double what it was at its low point. New construction has really been doing well and taking off. That's going to improve inventory and if rates continue to climb down as we think they are, we really think we'll see those inventories jump up over 800,000 units by the end of this year. So it's going to get much better before the end of the year and create more opportunities for buyers. Yeah.

Very good. Dale, what would you say to someone who's thinking about buying a home in the months ahead? Should they sit on the sideline and wait out the reduction in interest rates? Do you think they should proceed if they're financially ready?

What counsel do you have? I think they should proceed if they're financially ready, if they can create an affordable payment, if they have a good down payment amount that they've got. Because look, the longer you wait and the more rates drop, the more you're going to see an infusion of people coming to the market trying to buy and we'll be back to those competitive things like we had back in 2021 when 300 people were bidding on a home and they were going through the roof. So this is your time to get in right now.

Dale, final question. We're seeing stories about renting being a better value than buying, at least right now, while home values are up and mortgage rates are elevated. What's your opinion on that? My opinion is that's not the case. I mean, rents keep going up more than incomes do.

So you've got instability there. You have no appreciation that you create whatsoever in a rental, even at 3%, it's better than zero. And the tax benefits are substantial to buying a home right now and offsets a lot of your costs. You combine all those things plus the fact that the average homeowner has 40 times the wealth that a renter has, it's still the American dream. So I believe that owning a home is the best alternative for people today.

Yeah. I think the key is make sure you are financially ready. Don't stretch to buy a house you can't afford. Dale, we always appreciate your time, my friend. Thanks for stopping by. Thanks, Rob.

God bless you. That's Dale Vermilion, author of The Mortgage Maze. He's your go-to guy for mortgage questions.

Pick up a copy today. Hey, we're back with your questions on anything financial just around the corner. Stick around. The opinions offered during this program represent the personal or professional opinions of the participants given for informational purposes only.

Any information provided is not intended to replace advice from a financial, medical, legal, or other professional who understands your specific situation. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance live here on Moody Radio. I'm Rob West joining you live from the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. This is where media and broadcasting and podcasting professionals come together.

Those involved in film and movies and web projects all focused on taking the gospel to the ends of the earth and promoting a biblical worldview through all facets of culture. These are the few days each year all of those professionals come together to grow in community and relationship. There's a lot of meetings that take place, but a lot of learning that happens here as well. We're at the beautiful Omni, not Omni, Opryland. That's where we are, the Opryland Gaylord in Nashville, Tennessee, and we've been delighted to broadcast from here all week long. We'll be here through tomorrow, but we're taking your calls and questions today at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. We've got lines open today. We started by talking about mortgages and the real estate market.

Of course, always great when Dale Vermillion stops by. You know, I think the bottom line there is just recognize that if you're thinking about buying that house, it doesn't mean this isn't the time to do it. We've certainly seen mortgage prices or rates tick down, and they're going to come down further.

The key is just don't stretch. This is a time to be vigilant because we, in a sense, have the perfect storm here. We've got high housing prices, the average home now over $400,000 in the United States, combined with high interest rates, mortgage interest rates, which just means the cost of ownership is way up. The affordability of homes is lower than it's been in a long time, maybe ever. That isn't cause not to buy, but it is cause to take another look at your budget and just say, am I stretching too far? Am I going to put myself in a position where my finances will suffer because I've got so much allocated to the housing category?

That's where these guidelines can be helpful, including that guideline of not spending more than 25% on your mortgage payment, including taxes and insurance, not spending more than 30% of your take home pay in the entire housing category, including utilities and other expenses related to operating your home. So just be on your guard there, and if you can wait, this is probably a time to save and wait for interest rates to come back down. All right, let's turn the corner though. We want to take your questions on anything financial today. We'll be here throughout the hour and we'll tackle whatever's on your mind financially speaking. 800-525-7000, we've got lines open and you can call right now, 800-525-7000.

Let's begin in Michigan today. Hi Debbie, go right ahead. Hi Rob, thanks so much for taking my call. I really appreciate it.

Thank you. My mom is 89 and I'm calling on her behalf. She lives independently in an apartment and she has an eight acre piece of property that she wants to sell to my brother. Our questions are about capital gains tax or possible maybe getting into gifting taxes. The market value of the land is between 188,000 to 203,000. Is there anything you would like to know background wise? It's a great question. Let me ask you, is her intention to sell the property to your brother at a below market rate or is she selling it at the market rate?

That's something we've been trying to figure. She is, like I said, living independently but she has to keep her eye on the future where it might be possible that she would need long term care and she does not have long term care insurance. She has 50,000 plus in investments.

She has social security and my father's pension that would amount to 3,000 plus a month. This land is kind of like the last pot that would be available. We suggested that she sell it and invest it and have it set aside for her future possibilities. Is this land she currently lives on or is it separate from where she resides?

No. My father and her used to live on that land but when my dad died they actually had 10 acres and she sold the house and a couple acres to my brother at that time. She's hung on to these eight acres and now she's ready to let go of it. We're playing out how this money should be looked at, what price it should be sold to my brother for and how to do it.

Just a couple more questions. You said you believe the acreage that she's looking to sell to be valued at between 188 and 203,000, is that right? Yes, that's real estate high and low appraisal, yeah. Is she looking to sell it to him in that range or is she looking to give him a discount? She could possibly drop to like 160,000 but I guess protectively as her daughter I'm trying to look at it as okay what makes the most sense for her and yet I don't want my brother to have to pay the highest either but you know with everything you know to keep it legal, to keep it wise.

Sure, well let's look at just kind of the tax and implications of this first and then we'll talk about kind of the family dynamics second. So just in terms of selling a piece of property to a family member it's not an arm's length transaction so it is a transaction that the IRS will be interested in particularly if you can't establish that it's being sold at the market value. Now if she sells it you know at the level to which you have an appraisal to back it up then there's no issue.

It's a straight sale. You could use a real estate attorney to draft that contract. He would then make the purchase from her. He could either finance that by getting a loan or just make the cash you know at closing to your mom and then he's now the owner and he would deed the property in his name at that point it's his property so a new cost basis would be established at his purchase price and then he would pay capital gains down the road if he sold it for a profit. From your mom's standpoint if she's selling it to him at what you can justify as a true market value or at least in a range that you can justify then there's no gift there. If she were to decide to sell it to him below market so let's use the example of you know the highest or the lowest appraisal you can use is 188 and she decides to sell it to him for 160 well then she's in a sense given him a $28,000 gift and then sold the property alongside it and so she would just report the portion that goes above 18,000 which is what she's able to give to any individual without reporting it. That's not taxable she would just need to let the IRS know that she did it so that they can then allow that to chip away in her lifetime gift exclusion of 13 million so she's she's not going to pay any gift taxes until she gets above 13 million she'll just have to report it on form 709. So I think you know that's from the tax side when we come back if you can hold let's talk about just the family dynamics and how she might think about that piece of it as well so you stay right there we'll be right back with you Debbie excuse me Debbie we're taking your phone calls today we've got lines open 800-525-7000 we'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on faith and finance live here on moody radio live from the national religious broadcasters convention in beautiful Nashville Tennessee at the Gaylord Opryland I'm Rob West we're taking your calls and questions the lines are filling up quickly it looks like we have just one remaining at 800-525-7000 before the break we were talking to Debbie in Michigan her mom who's 89 wants to sell a piece of property some land that she does not live on to her brother to Debbie's brother and they're wondering about the tax implications we're going to deal with the family dynamics Debbie in a moment but just to recap you know if she sells that at below market whatever it would be considered below market is a gift anything above 18,000 she'd have to report to the IRS still not taxable at that point she would determine whether she has a gain going back to her original cost basis for the purchase of that particular parcel and determining even at the reduced amount let's say she gives your brother a discount is there a gain there from when she originally bought it and with her with your dad years ago and if so then that would be she would pay capital gains on that does all of that part of it make sense yes it does okay very good now in terms of the family dynamic I mean I think she needs to step back and just look at her overall wealth transfer plan and say what is her intention to balance both the needs that she has for the assets that she's accumulated or she and your dad have accumulated over their lifetime in terms of continuing to fund her lifestyle and her desire to give or to leave an inheritance to you her children either now or at death and balance that against any other giving that she wants to do to ministry or charity and so the extent to which she's discounting this property because let's say she has the ability to do that financially and still have enough assets to fund the rest of her life and that may be a question mark so that would be the first consideration the second is if she is extending that discount I would say that's a part of her wealth transfer plan and she needs to consider that in light of her overall wealth transfer plan which includes you and any other siblings you have and so she needs to look at this as not an isolated transaction but a part of her overall wealth transfer strategy if in fact she's going to discount the property because the bottom line is this is an asset that's a part of her estate and anything she's doing to reduce the value of it in the sale to her family member a child of hers is a part of her wealth transfer or a gift at that point does that make sense right yes it does yeah so I think those are the considerations not a whole lot to think about other than how do I put this together mechanically and I would engage a real estate attorney to draft that contract and do this legally have a rationale for the selling price that that she establishes and make sure there's clear communication to your brother as to why you've landed on the price that you have and how you can you know back that up and then I think with regard to whether or not she discounts it that's going to come back to her overall wealth transfer plan right right yeah any feelings with what I've told you whether she should go you know with the lowest market value or dip down to that hundred and sixty thousand mark knowing what you know yeah well I mean I think so that the market value you're saying based on two recent appraisals is somewhere between one eighty eight and two oh three correct yeah yes okay so it would be perfectly appropriate for her to say either we're gonna meet it in the middle and do you know one ninety five or to go with the lowest amount because there is a you know a real third-party appraisal there that justifies that amount I think any of any price below one eight one eighty eight is really going to come down to her wanting to give a gift to your brother because you know she's discounting it off of her estate and she's not given that money to you or anybody else and so I don't think she needs to feel obligated to discount it unless she wants to go ahead and extend a part of her estate to your brother now versus a death yeah it just gets into I guess speculation on her needs in the future which are a little hard to you know no because it's up to God you know in some right but you know but I think that's unrelated to the selling price because you know it's kind of like this is a piece of real estate this is an asset in her overall estate right and and if the fact that she's selling one of her assets to a family member it would be perfectly appropriate to sell it at the true market value there's not a an obligation to sell it even if she has plenty of assets to last the rest of her life I don't think she needs to feel like she automatically has to knock twenty eight thousand dollars off the purchase price just because it's a family member unless she's once wanting to do some giving while she's alive to her son but in that case why wouldn't she do that with the others including you as well yeah yeah yeah yeah those kind of things were kind of I think part of our family meeting we recently had so you're just kind of substantiating validating all that so I appreciate it well you're welcome I mean I think we've got to look at this as I mean let's think of it as cash in the bank right I mean let's say instead of a piece of property worth one hundred and eighty eight thousand it was a hundred and eighty eight thousand dollars in the bank if she were going to give that to your brother he'd have to give her a hundred and eighty eight thousand to get that hundred and eighty eight thousand dollars in cash right so why would we charge anything less than a hundred and eighty eight thousand if that's what it's worth unless the intention is to go ahead and give a gift to him and so I think that's the way you need to process it in terms of this is her asset and she has a full ability to sell it and if she were to sell it on the open market she'd probably get somewhere between a hundred and eighty eight and two thousand two hundred and three thousand so any desire to sell it for less than that just needs to be viewed as not a transaction but a gift and at the end of the day I think that's the way it needs to be governed the other piece is you know who knows how long the Lord has for here so you know she may live a long time and and need these assets to live on so she may not even have the ability to discount it if we just look at this practically in terms of what she needs to sustain the rest of her life so anyway I hope that's helpful Debbie I know this is not easy these kinds of situations you never want to let money come between family and that's where these can be really challenging but I think as long as you can document everything then she is taking the right approach to this thanks for your call today Jim coming your way after the break and we've got room for a few more questions today at eight hundred five two five seven thousand this is Faith and Finance Live we'll be right back well this is Faith and Finance Live we're live from NRB my name is Rob West and this is the program where we help you think about your money in light of biblical wisdom we want God to be your ultimate treasure not money the world would tell you to worship God's creation money no we worship God and money is a tool to accomplish God's purposes as we spend it and allocate it appropriately and as we save it with thoughtfulness and as we give it generously and all of the practical decisions we make I think are a reflection the spending decisions we make every day are a reflection of what's most important to us and here's what's really cool is that when we give when we're generous it's the ultimate act of trust and a demonstration that we know God is our provider because if we believed we were responsible for our provision well we'd probably hold every dime that passes through our hands in our clenched fist but because we know God is our provider we can hold it loosely and give it generously because we know God will continue to provide and the great secret to that is that act of giving allows us to participate in God's activity we get the joy of knowing we're involved of where and where God is at work and that's just how God's virtuous cycle of managing his money works as he gives and we give it back and then we experience the joy and he continues to give now I recognize some of you are in a really difficult spot financially right now but here's what I know that we can look to the sparrows right God says very clearly in his word look at the birds you know they're not worried about where their next meal is going to come from you don't need to be either I'm there with you I will never leave you or forsake you seek first my kingdom and that's what we want to remind you of this program every day hey let's take some more of your questions as we continue through the hour of tackling the financial conundrums you're facing today we've got a few lines open at eight hundred five two five seven thousand let's head south all the way to Miami hi Jim go ahead sir hey thanks for taking my call I wanted to ask about reinvesting retirement savings into an IRA I had recently left my position of a job that I was able to contribute to the retirement for 15 years and now I'm taking a new job without any benefits or help so I've transitioned the money into an IRA and it's all sitting there and the question I have is do I go ahead and reinvest it now because the market seems to be on an uptick do I do I wait a little bit for it to maybe drop and if I invest it all or I invest it a little bit at a time reintroduce it into the market a little bit at a time that's kind of what I'm trying to figure out it's a great question and I'll just tell you what the data says the data says the best time to invest is right now that the moment we try to pick our entry point it's a losing proposition so to say well I'm going to wait till the market pulls back or I'm going to begin to methodically put it into the market I mean if that's what it's going to take to get you investing putting it in a portion of time then go for it but the data would say that if you're ready to invest and you know this money needs to grow for the long term go ahead and invest it and make sure that it's in an appropriate investment allocation that's consistent with your goals and objectives and risk tolerance and then continue to dollar cost average in continue to add to it now if you don't have a new company sponsored plan then you can do that on your own through at the very least you know continuing to contribute to this IRA that was the recipient of that rollover and so you'll bump up to the ceiling of seven thousand pretty quickly and you could look at other options at that point but I think the key is to get started now the next question other than the timing is the kind of aware of the investments what investments are you going to choose and I think as you make that decision you have to decide do I want to do it myself or do I want to hire somebody to do it for me and there's a range of options in each of those you know doing it yourself could involve a kind of a service like sound mind investing where they'll make some suggestions and you ultimately are the one making the decision in the managed options you could use a robo solution which is using index portfolios to kind of create an automated solution that's very low cost or you could hire a money manager either through buying a mutual fund or a disc what's called a discretionary money manager where they're actually making all the buy and sell decisions for you using stocks and bonds and mutual funds and the like so I would say the timing I would do it now and the where comes down to how you want to approach that either yourself or someone else is that helpful yeah no that's very helpful so don't try to perhaps time things just put it in especially it's for the long run and get started now that's exactly right I mean you could certainly second guess that and I can understand why you'd be looking at today in particular I mean the S&P just closed at a fresh record record high 5087 we've never been there before so you could say well wait a minute you know there's a lot of economists that still expect some sort of recession this year we're at an all-time high on the S&P 500 we're close to it on the Dow Jones why would I put it in the market today and I'm just staying saying if you look at all the research you know typically the best time to invest is now rather than trying to pick your entry point you certainly could split the middle and say I'm gonna go ahead and invest 50% now and and I'm gonna wait and see if this recession plays out over the balance of this year and if we get a pullback at some point you know that's the time when I'm gonna put the other 50% in you could do that but the data would say that you're gonna do better just once you decide you're gonna do it let's do it and take the long-term perspective okay all right that's what I needed to hear thank you all right thanks Jim we appreciate your call today to Kansas City hi Jim go ahead hey thank you for taking my call I appreciate your time my question was about CDs I'm gonna get a large lump sum I work for the government and on my pension I'll have a large buyout of about $70,000 and my wife and I want to set up our emergency savings which we already have and have money in it but we want to take and add some more money to that but I'm wondering what the risks are with CDs are is that a good investment with the remainders of some of our money to buy CDs does that have good returns or is it risky yeah yeah it's a great question Jim you know I would say if you're using a CD with FDIC insurance so a bank or a credit union that has either FDIC or NCUA insurance you've got the backing of the full faith and credit of the United States government which that's not risk-free but it's as close to risk-free as you're going to get so the risk is good in terms of being very low and the return right now is good now the challenge is longer term when we get beyond what you would call your emergency fund because you've got more assets now given you're moving into retirement you know the the rates are great on CDs right now one two maybe three years they start to fall off four or five years and we know rates are going to be coming down so that's not going to be as attractive let's say you were to put it all in a you know half of it in a one-year CD and the other half in a two-year two years from now you are probably not going to see those rates that you're seeing today and so what I would say is let's take let's keep our emergency savings in a liquid FDIC insured savings account good news is you can get five percent on that money with complete liquidity maybe the next tranche that you might need in the next three to five years maybe that we put into CDs one two three year CDs we ladder them but anything that has a time horizon of five years or more I'd probably be looking to put that in a in a stock and bond portfolio you know with more allocated to bonds than stocks to keep it more conservative but it's going to give you more long-term appreciation even when rates are back down much lower than they are today where they've been more consistently for the last 20 years and that's how you're going to offset inflation and continue to to grow this money throughout your retirement years but I want to hear your thoughts on all that so stay right here I'm going to take a break and we'll be back and talk on the other side we'll be right back so glad to have you with us today on faith and finance live live from the nrb convention what is that well that stands for national religious broadcasters media professionals broadcasters podcasters those involved in film and media all surrounding the gospel of Jesus Christ together for a week to learn and grow and connect and we're delighted that we've been able to bring you this program from nrb all week long that will continue through tomorrow but we're also grateful to take your questions today and before the break we were talking to jim in kansas city he's got about 70 to 80 thousand from a pension buyout he's wondering about cds the risk there and how he should think about that uh jim give me your thoughts on what I shared with you as to the safety as well as the the long-term prospects of cds versus other investments well I think it's a good idea to do the short-term one one year two year if if the interest is you know hitting right at the right time because I'm not going to retire till the end of the year of this year and I also have a 457 account I'm not sure what to do with if I should leave it there in the 457 account which is run by our government and uh or if I should roll it over into maybe a Roth IRA or some other investment I'm just not sure of yeah how much have you accumulated in the 457 it's only about 60 000 okay yeah I took a big hit in 2008 and lost a good 48 of my money oh wow wow yeah I mean I keep it invested I I generally recommend rolling it out of the 457 there's just so few options in the 457 in terms of how you would invest it and rolling it out not to a Roth because that's pre-tax money but rolling it out to a traditional IRA would give you unlimited investment options and so I like that option a lot to roll it to the IRA it would also allow you when you get to 70 and a half to do some charitable giving out of that through a qualified charitable distribution where you can get the money out which went in pre-tax and you're not going to pay tax on it coming out because it goes straight to a ministry or charity which is a great option so I'd probably look at rolling that to an IRA and then either have an advisor help you manage that or manage it for you would be the way to go well I appreciate your help and I appreciate your program I listen all the time and now that I'm getting closer to retirement just wanted to find out some of my other options because I'm not a financial guy yeah I hear you well let's talk about what you are because you're a really important guy now I understand you had 30 years in the fire department you were the local fire chief in your area and thank you okay fire captain okay thank you for your service Jim what are you most going to miss about being a fire captain as you transition into retirement oh it's like a family a brotherhood I think I'll miss going to work and and just you know helping the public is something I did is why I got into the fire service it's a job I still love to go to but my body's just telling me hey it's time to slow down well god created us to be workers there's no doubt he was smiling as you were using your gifts and talents to serve others throughout your lifetime but now he's got something else in store for you and I can't wait to hear more about what it is be sure to check back with us along the way but again thank you for your service to the people of Kansas Jim and thank you for calling the program today we appreciate it let's head to Illinois hi Allison go right ahead hi thank you for taking my call sure um I'm a disabled senior on a very fixed income I mean with god's grace I've been making it on like less than 13 000 a year and um actually there's a lot of things that I've done without but that's okay um my friend um we've been friends for 20 years and she asked me to put my name on a bank account with her um numerous years ago and I did and she said I don't want you to look at that until I pass well she passed and I went to the bank and they said um there's almost 40 000 in that account and I'm just overwhelmed wow um I don't mean that's a lot to me and I don't know if I have to declare that since it's just been in my name all this time or what I mean I'm on food stamps so naturally I have to get off of food stamps which is okay but yeah I don't know um like taxation wise what to do and I have to pray a lot and how to spend it yeah well Allison what a story and obviously you've been living on a very meager amount and as you said you've gone without and yet god has provided for you and he's continuing to provide for you and and even an unexpected way now if you were a co-owner of this account uh legally this is your money and so you don't have to declare anything you were already the owner prior to your friend's passing if you were a co-owner of that account meaning it was a joint account often it's called a joint tenants with right of survivorship but so essentially that's your money and you can you have legal right to claim that money and I think the next step is to say lord what would you have me to do with this and clearly you've already said that you're going to pray about it quite a bit and there's implications to this with regard to food stamps even though this was your money you didn't treat it as your money but obviously now that she's passed this is this is the reality that you're now aware of of what's in there and you are the the legal owner of that wow okay thank you I also have yeah um go ahead less problem she she left me uh safe and I haven't been able to open it yet I don't remember where she said the key is but I believe there's cash in that so I don't know what to do with the cash is that yeah did she have a will um no her will was outdated and she has two sons that are two sons and a daughter that are estranged from her but they they're trying to find out stuff okay yeah and so have they been in touch with you yes okay yeah so normally what would happen is there would be a probate process that would be started if there's a will the will would govern that if not it's considered intestate and the probate court would decide how to disperse her assets anything that was left behind that she was the the sole owner of now in the case of this account because you were joint owners that wouldn't apply here but with any other assets including cash that was hers inside of a safe that would be a part of her estate and that would be filed with the probate court so a petition for probate would have to be filed with the probate court that would start the process of distributing her estate now in some cases they don't even really get involved because there's just such a little amount and and not a whole lot there but you know that will that process will unfold as you move through it are they planning to file with the probate court a petition I don't know okay all right well that would be the next step have you told them that there's a safe with that you believe that there's some money in no no it's all right it's at my house she gave it to me inside it's mine so oh okay so she made a gift to you of the money yes okay got it all right yeah I mean I I think you know the the probate process will likely begin and and you'll just need to with regard to whatever you know make that known to them but otherwise if there is no valid will and there's really not a whole lot in the way of assets then the the court won't have a whole lot to do there but I think at this point you know the the next step for you is to determine what God has for you in the days ahead and I'm delighted that we were able to speak with you today and if we can help further Allison in the future don't hesitate to call god bless you quickly to Coconut Creek Florida hi Michael go ahead hi Rob thank you and thank you for your ministry I benefit from it many times when I when I can listen my question is about reverse mortgages I don't know much about it I'm trying to find out what is the benefits and the drawbacks we our home is paid for we don't have a mortgage and we're thinking about possibly getting a reverse mortgage yeah you know they can be a great tool and I think they're not for everyone there's some people that when they get to this place that you're at they say listen my home is paid for I want to keep it that way and I certainly think that's a viable approach in fact I love the idea of being completely unencumbered I will say this is likely your biggest asset and so in this season of life if you don't have enough in the way of other assets perhaps you know if you look at your various income streams you don't have a pension maybe you're getting Social Security but it's not enough to maintain your lifestyle a lot of folks who say we plan to stay in our home use this idea of a reverse mortgage as a planning tool to increase cash flow and so the way that would work is as long as you're 62 and you've got at least 50% equity which you certainly have 100% equity what they would do is evaluate your age and life expectancy versus the value of that property and then tell you how much they could give you in the form of a monthly payment for the rest of your life now that payment the amount that they pay out to you can never exceed the value of the whole meaning they could pay you more than your home is worth but the only obligation you and or your estate will ever have is just your home is collateral you're not personally guaranteeing it with a home equity conversion mortgage or a reverse mortgage you're not guaranteeing what would be paid to you beyond the value of the home that's serving as collateral the government actually is saying they'll take anything beyond that so if you live to 130 and that monthly payment ends up exceeding over the rest of your life the value of the home when it's sold the government pays the difference so you're not you know personally obligating yourself but it can be a real blessing because you now have this income stream and then if you decide to move the house is sold and the loan is paid plus interest or at death after you and your wife pass away your estate would then sell the house pay whatever is owed and then the rest could be distributed to ministry or heirs as you see fit so it can be a great option again not for everybody but something i think that's worthwhile to look at our friends and movement mortgage could be helpful here just go to movement.com slash faith and they'll tell you a lot more about it thanks for your call today faith and finance live is a partnership between moody radio and faith five thank you to lynn dan amy jim and chris we'll see you next time bye-bye