Irene Retirement Review: Sell Your Home and Stay in It

Irene has decided to shut down the business and no longer offers home equity products.

For many homeowners, much of their wealth is invested in their homes. So, it makes sense that the equity in your home is likely going to play a big role in your financial security in retirement.

Some seniors will pay off their home prior to retirement, allowing them to live rent-free with only property taxes and home upkeep expenses to worry about in retirement. Others will sell their home and downsize to a smaller property or move to a place with a lower cost of living so they can live more cheaply and perhaps get some of that equity back.

For other retirees, leaving home may be undesirable, but they may still need to access their home equity in order to fund their retirement and the expenses that come along with it. If you find yourself in this situation, Irene Retirement could allow you to both continue to live in your home and to access your home equity.

This Irene review will help you to determine the home equity solutions Irene provides are right for you.

In this review:

• How to Access Your Home Equity with Irene Retirement
• Irene Retirement by the Numbers: Rates, Terms, Fees & Limits
• The Benefits of Irene Retirement
• The Downsides of Irene Retirement

How to Access Your Home Equity with Irene Retirement

Irene Retirement provides an alternative to standard home equity loans or home equity lines of credit. Instead, you can sell your house directly to Irene Retirement, get cash upfront to fund your retirement, and make Irene responsible for property taxes as well as for large and costly home maintenance projects.

If you are interested in potentially accessing your home equity through Irene Retirement, you can contact the company to schedule a free consultation and find out how to tap into the equity in your home. Someone will reach out to you within 24 hours to provide insight into the ways you can access your home equity.

You currently have two options with Irene, depending on how much cash you need upfront and whether you want to commit to monthly payments. These options include Irene Stay Safe and Irene Safe Lease Back.

Irene Stay Safe

With Irene Stay Safe, you sell your house directly to Irene Retirement. The amount of money you can obtain from selling your home will depend upon the home’s value, who is living in it, and a variety of other factors.

You will no longer be responsible for paying for homeowners insurance, real estate taxes, or home maintenance. Irene will take care of these costs as the official owner of the home.

You will retain the right to live in the home or to rent it out for the rest of your life, and you will not owe monthly payments to Irene if you opt for this program.

Irene Safe Lease Back

The Irene Safe Lease Back program works a little differently. With this program, you can get more money upfront from Irene—up to 50% of the value of your home. However, you will need to make monthly rent payments to Irene. These monthly payments are designed to be affordable.

Irene still pays real estate taxes and insurance on the home under this plan, and it also takes care of structural maintenance. If you leave your home, Irene will pay you an additional sum of money.

This program is not only best if you need more money upfront, but it might also the right program for seniors who have a larger outstanding mortgage balance on their current home loan and who thus have less equity to tap into.

Irene Retirement by the Numbers: Rates, Terms, Fees & Limits

Irene Retirement does not loan you money, it buys your home. As a result, your credit score, debt-to-income ratio, and other factors that are typically considered when you apply for a home equity loan or reverse mortgage loan do not matter.

Instead, Irene decides how much money to give you in an up-front lump sum based on:

• The residents of your home
• The value of your home
• The outstanding balance on your current mortgage

With the Irene Safe Lease Back program, you can get as much as 50% of your home’s value in one big payment, but you would have to be OK with paying a monthly rent. Irene’s Stay Safe provides you with a smaller lump sum payment but you don’t have to worry about paying rent while you remain in your home for the rest of your life.

The Benefits of Irene Retirement

There are some significant benefits to Irene Retirement, including the following advantages:

• Irene makes it possible to stay in your home even while accessing the equity in your house.
• You don’t have to worry about making monthly payments on a loan as you would if you took out a home equity loan or a home equity line of credit.
• Irene provides flexibility. You can choose whether you want less money and a stable, rent-free retirement or a larger lump-sum upfront. Irene’s consultants will work with you to tailor a plan to suit your needs.
• You no longer need to worry about property taxes, insurance, or maintenance. For many seniors, rising property taxes make it hard to stay in their home. The uncertainty of home maintenance costs can also be very stressful for those who are on a fixed income. You don’t need to worry about this anymore once Irene becomes responsible for these costs.

The Downsides of Irene Retirement

There are also some downsides of working with Irene retirement, including:

• You may not be able to get as much value from your home when selling to Irene as you would if you sold your home on the open market. But, of course, you do get to continue to live in your home, so this benefit may significantly outweigh the downside.
• You can’t leave your home to heirs. If you sell your home to Irene, you won’t be able to leave it to your children.
• You may have to pay rent. If you want a larger lump sum upfront or have a larger outstanding mortgage balance, you may have to choose the Safe Lease Back Program to get much equity out of your home. This would mean that you are stuck paying rent to Irene.

Bottom Line: Is Irene Retirement Right for You?

If you want to tap into the equity in your home without making monthly payments, Irene Retirement provides you the option to do that. You can also rest assured you’ll be able to stay in your home—or rent it out—if you sell your house to Irene Retirement. But you’ll need to think carefully about whether you’re being offered a fair value for your home and make sure you’re OK with no longer having your home as a legacy that you can leave to your heirs.