Good Neighbor Podcast: Orange County

Reverse Mortgage Myths, Explained Clearly

• Rachel Fyffe & Clark Wilson

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Think you know reverse mortgages? The story changed. We sit down with Clark Wilson, the Old Mortgage Guy, to separate the old private-lender horror stories from today’s FHA-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgages that protect seniors and heirs. Clark brings more than three decades of experience as a registered investment advisor and national trainer, translating complex retirement choices into plain, practical steps.

Clark explains how a policy shift in the late ’80s moved reverse mortgages under FHA oversight, ending the era of “kicking granny out.” We dig into the non-recourse protection that caps liability at the home’s value, why typical proceeds are limited to roughly the high-40 percent range, and what that means for preserving equity. We also address the biggest sticking points head-on: fees, inheritance concerns, and the belief that homeowners control equity. Spoiler: the market moves equity more than any single homeowner does, and the modern product is designed with guardrails for families.

This conversation is packed with useful scenarios. If you still carry a mortgage, a reverse can wipe out monthly principal and interest to free up cash flow. If your home is paid off, a standby line of credit can act as a retirement buffer, letting you avoid selling investments in a downturn. Clark shares simple criteria to gauge fit and timing, including why higher property values often mean better terms and how four data points—home value, current balance, age, and location—can quickly frame your options.

We keep it real and actionable, so you can stop guessing and start evaluating whether your home equity could work for you in retirement                          Visit: https://www.oldmortgageguy.com/. 

If you found this helpful, follow the show, share it with someone who needs clarity on reverse mortgages, and leave a quick review to help more neighbors find us.

SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, a place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Rachel Five.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Now, do you have questions about your mortgage, want to refinance, or wondering if a reverse mortgage could be a really great option for you? Well, I'll have just the guy to answer those questions. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Clark Wilson, the old mortgage guy. Hey Clark, how is it going?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, it's going fine. Thank you very much for having me, Rachel. It is my pleasure to be with you on this wonderful podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, we are so excited to have you, and we're excited to learn about your business. So tell us all about it.

SPEAKER_02:

Sure. Well, I'm the old mortgage guy at oldmortgageguy.com. And of course, the email address is Clark at Oldmortgeguy.com. And uh I'm 74 years old, so I am a senior, so I specialize in reverse mortgages for seniors because I'm a senior and seniors need a lot of help. And unfortunately, uh Rachel, I'm sorry that they have a tremendous number of misconceptions about the current reverse mortgage that's that might be available to them because they remember what it was like in the before time. So in the before time, what it was was uh pardon me, was it was private lenders doing reverse mortgages as soon as uh uh President Reagan signed the legislation creating the reverse mortgage. And it was private lenders, and private lenders protected their investment in people's properties, uh and and they were kicking granny out of the house when the value of the property fell below what was old on the reverse mortgage because they were private lenders, but then uh uh clearer heads prevailed in Washington, DC and said, hey, we got to do something about that, you know. So what they did was they came up with giving the reverse mortgage over to the FHA. So then it was under the auspices of the SFHA, and there was no more kicking granny out of the house, okay. No more the kids got stuck with the with any kind of money or anything who were the heirs, you know, when someone passed away. It was it was a completely different reverse mortgage, and it's called a home equity conversion mortgage, okay, because what you're doing is converting a forward mortgage into a reverse mortgage. Now, the dates on this were 1987, uh Congress passed the legislation to put the reverse mortgage in under the auspices of the Federal Housing Administration, FHA. And in 1989, the first FHA insured home equity conversion mortgage was given. Okay, and that started the ball rolling. And so we've had them available ever since. And what and and the problem that I have today is that people have a mindset of what it used to be, because when they were kicking granny out of the house when it was private lenders, I mean, everybody saw that and was horrified by it, as well, they should be. Um, and and people kind of remember that. And so when I talked to people today about a reverse mortgage, I I asked one woman the other day, I said, What do you know about reverse mortgages? And she said, I just know they're bad. Well, they're not bad. Actually, they're like the best thing you could possibly get today if you're a senior. And so in my business, I got to tell you, what I do is I look at people's personal financial information. Uh, just a little background on me. I've had my uh um registered investment advisor's license for over 30 years, and I am the retired national training manager at Investors Business Daily Newspaper, where I taught people at Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch and all the major warehouses basically how to how to do people's portfolios in the stock market. Okay, but I retired out of that now. This is my retirement uh business, but I'm not making things up. When I look at somebody's personal financial uh information, I got over 37 years doing that. So uh if it's if if a reverse mortgage is right for them, I will tell them. And if it is not right for them, I will not tell them. So they don't have to worry about whether it's good or it's bad or anything else. All they got, all they got to do is let me have a look, you know. But uh that is kind of the toughest thing to do because uh starting a conversation about a reverse mortgage, people have that thing in their head that says, Oh my god, oh my god, they go crazy trying to think about how horrible it's gonna be when in fact, not so horrible anymore. I have a woman who uh go ahead.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. Well, I want to keep moving on here. So, how did you get into this business?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I got into it because I was uh I had uh an entire lifetime of asking people about their personal financial stuff, and so I wanted to get into some kind of allied business to to uh investors business daily and my um my uh registered investment advisory practice. Um, and I guess the the thing that hit me was well, hey, I'm still asking people about their personal financial stuff, so that mortgages would probably be a good place to go, and so I've been doing it ever since 2015 when I uh uh retired out of investors' business daily.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Well, you kind of touched upon this, but I do like I was asking, you know, what do you think are maybe some myths or misconceptions um in your industry? And I know you were kind of leaning into that. I don't know if there's anything you want to add to that.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, the misconceptions are that it will uh there's a misconception where it will eat up all of your equity and your property and you'll have nothing left. And that's baloney because the first thing is they don't they don't give you 100%. You know, if you're gonna get a reverse mortgage, the max out today is about 48%. So if you own a million-dollar property, you know, you have to owe less than$500,000 on it in order to get a reverse mortgage. Well, you're never gonna chew all that up in the in in all the rest of your life unless you live to be 150. So uh you can't really use it all up, and then then people are saying the other misconception is that people are in charge of the equity in their property themselves, and they say, I'm saving my property for my children because I will preserve by doing so, I will preserve the equity in that property for them, and so I don't want to do a reverse mortgage, even though I could really use the money, etc., etc., because I want to save it for my kids. And so when I talk to those people, I asked them what happened in 2008 and 2009 when the value of your property went down 40 percent. Did you do that? Were you responsible for that? No, I wasn't. Well, what was responsible for? Well, it was the real estate market, it was inflation, it was a lot of other things other than people actually controlling the equity in their property, and so what I point out to them is real simple. Look, you're not in charge of the uh of the uh equity in your property, the marketplace is the market is in charge of it, and so what I'd like you to do now is thank God for giving you another$400,000 on the value of your property in the last few years for you doing nothing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

All a gift from God, it's a gift from God, and the the thing about reverse mortgages is the fees are high. Okay, the fees are high, they're high. You're asking a lender to give you a large bag of money and you never make a payment on it. Now, lenders might want to have some fees for that, you know. So, but but what do you care? And I show people that the fees, oh, those are really high fees. Well, yeah, they are, but God just gave you$400,000. So, I mean, what's what's the big deal? And if that were yeah, if that were if that weren't so, Rachel, um, you know, I probably wouldn't be doing it, you know. But I want to give people as much as I can under the current um structures of of mortgage lending. And I think it's a good time because guess what? Values are still high, they're starting to come down, but they're still high. And you want to do a reverse mortgage when the values are still high, because then you get the best deal for yourself.

SPEAKER_01:

That's great, great advice. So now, um, you know, we know marketing is at the heart of every business. So, how are you finding your clients?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I find clients by tripping over them, basically. Uh I I have done all kinds of marketing in the past, okay, but today I'm kind of slowing down a little bit. I want to talk to people who want to talk to me, okay? And so, because of that, what I do for people, and what I'll do for anybody in your audience, is if they have any questions, they can reach out to me at Clark at Oldmortgeguy.com, or they can call me toll free at 800-866 old R Guy. 866 old R Guy. I thought that was brilliant. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. And have you ever thought of doing a podcast?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh well, I've thought about it. Uh, I used to be on the radio. I had uh when I was uh registered investment advisor, I had uh uh two uh radio shows on 28 stations nationwide, so that was that was fun, but I haven't thought about podcasting because there's so many people in it, you know. I just like to step back a little bit. I don't have to be in the in the in the limelight, you know, anymore. Been there, been there, done that. Okay, I just want to take care of people right now.

SPEAKER_01:

That's awesome. Now, okay, so outside of work, Clark, what do you like to do for fun?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, I uh uh uh because I'm an old guy, I I've started uh uh volunteering places, and here in San Clemente we have the Cabrillo Theater, which just completed the$250,000 renovation. It's just beautiful, it's just beautiful. So I I volunteer there to to handle the concessions at intermission, and so I do that with with them. And for the last 32 years at my church, I've run the video at my church for for a very long time. Um, what else do I do? Let me see here. Maybe I have a list here of the two or three things that I do. Um well, that's pretty much it. I mean, I do the I do the volunteering at church and volunteering with the Cabrill Theater, and that's pretty much it. It's a lot of fun, and those are great shows at the Cabrill Theater. So if anybody hasn't been there, you better go.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So so, Clark, please tell our listeners, and you already kind of have, but let's do it again. How are listeners? One thing they should remember about Clark Wilson, the old mortgage guy.

SPEAKER_02:

The one thing they should remember is I will answer all of your questions, I will talk to anybody, anywhere, anytime, for free. And if you call me up and you want to talk about a reverse mortgage, I only need four pieces of information, and I can tell you what you can get in a reverse mortgage.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Well, how can our listeners learn more about the old mortgage guy? I know you've given your details, but let's do it one more time.

SPEAKER_02:

All right, Clark at Oldmortgeguy.com, Clark at Oldmortgeguy.com. You can even go uh to the uh website, and I have a lady on there who very kindly uh put together a little uh a little thing saying I was a nice guy. Okay, so you can see that, and there's some questions and answers there, and you can you can talk to me directly there as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, wonderful. Well, Clark, I really appreciate you being on the show, and I really wish you all the best moving forward.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you very much, Rachel. It's been a pleasure. Thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gmp orange county dot com. That's gnporangecounty dot com or call seven one four nine four one eight six two.