It's Halloween, and I'm telling three ghost stories: the three fears that keep people from even asking about a reverse mortgage. We look at where each fear came from, the grain of truth inside it, and what's actually true once you flip on the porch light. Who really uses reverse mortgages today, whether the bank can ever take your home, and what your kids actually inherit. No pressure, no pitch, just the facts.

People sometimes ask how I ended up specializing in reverse mortgages. In this episode, I take you back to the choices that brought me to Colorado, my years in the Army, and the winding path through finance and traditional mortgage lending that led me to this work.

I also share the moment I first looked into reverse mortgages. I was skeptical, too. I did my homework, learned how the program worked, and thought it was something I would consider for my own mother. More than two decades later, I still enjoy meeting with families, hearing their stories, and helping them understand what the numbers mean — including when a reverse mortgage may not be the right fit.

This is a personal conversation about community, trust, and why education matters before any big financial decision.

This week I'm joined in studio by a Denver-area realtor who's known around town as the Condo King, and we're not talking about reverse mortgages — we're talking about the market you're actually living in.

Here's the headline: closed listings were down 18% year over year in September. That's 2,898 closings this September versus 3,523 a year ago. Pending listings were down 13%. Gross sales volume was down 17%. The median closed price slipped from $650,000 in August to $635,000 in September, and it's off about 2% from a year ago. And for the first time in more than twenty years, more people are leaving Colorado than moving in.

The trend is not your friend right now — but that doesn't mean it's all bad news. It's very much a buyer's market, and sellers have tools they may not realize they have, including seller-funded buydowns that can pull a rate down significantly in year one.

We also go through three pitfalls for buyers and three for sellers. Buyers: skipping pre-approval, believing the 20% down myth, and underestimating the hidden costs of ownership. Sellers: overpricing, neglecting repairs, and skipping staging and presentation.

If you're thinking about buying, selling, or wondering whether to stay put for a while, this episode gives you the real numbers from the people in the trenches.