For heirs who found a reverse mortgage

Selling a house with a reverse mortgage in Florida

A parent has died, a house is your responsibility, and a title search or a statement in a drawer has turned up a reverse mortgage. If it is an FHA-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage, a HECM, then a federal timeline started running. A written notice is required and it goes to the estate and the heirs: 24 CFR 206.125(a)(2) requires the mortgagee to notify the borrower's estate and the borrower's heirs that the mortgage is due and payable. Nothing in that subsection requires the notice to state the payoff, so the letter that starts the clock is not the letter that gives a family the number to plan from. This page reads the rules in the order they actually apply: 24 CFR part 206, HUD's Mortgagee Letters 2015-10 and 2022-15, and HUD's own one-page notice to heirs. What the loan does, what the servicer owes the estate and when, the 95 percent provision that decides whether a family can keep the house, and the point at which handing the keys back is the correct answer. It is general information, not legal or tax advice, and nothing here tells any reader what their own rights or obligations are. The legal questions belong to a Florida probate attorney, the loan questions belong to the servicer in writing, and the first call belongs to a HUD-approved housing counselor: HUD states that foreclosure, eviction and homeless counseling are always free, that other types of counseling and workshops may be offered for a nominal, reasonable and customary fee that must be disclosed before counseling begins, and that participating agencies must waive any fee the client cannot afford to pay.

Updated 2026-10-12

What is actually on the house

HUD describes a HECM as a reverse mortgage insured by the Federal Housing Administration that converts home equity into a source of available funds, where "the borrower makes no payments on the loan while living in the house," and the balance becomes due and payable when the borrower sells, stops occupying the home as a principal residence, or on the death of the last surviving borrower. That is HUD's wording in its notice titled Inheriting a Home Secured by an FHA-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage. The same notice adds that at that point no further funds may be disbursed.

The consequence matters more than the definition. Because no payments were being made, the balance moved the other way. Under 24 CFR 206.27(b)(7) the monthly mortgage insurance premium may be added to the outstanding principal balance, and when HUD's regulation describes what has to be paid to satisfy the loan it speaks of the outstanding loan balance "including any accrued interest, MIP, and mortgagee advances," at 24 CFR 206.125(a)(2)(i). Mortgagee advances are the taxes, insurance and preservation costs the servicer paid out when the borrower did not. A statement from three years ago is a historical document, not a payoff, and the gap between the two is not something anyone can estimate from the outside.

So the first question is not what the house is worth. It is what the balance is on a stated date, in writing, from the servicer, and what it will be on a realistic closing date. Everything else on this page is arithmetic built on those two numbers.

The maturity event, and the date the clock started

The loan comes due by operation of the mortgage itself. 24 CFR 206.27(c)(1) requires the mortgage to state that the outstanding loan balance is due and payable in full if a borrower dies and the property is not the principal residence of at least one surviving borrower, or if a borrower conveys all of his or her title and no other borrower retains title. A second group of conditions, at 24 CFR 206.27(c)(2), requires the Commissioner's approval first, and covers a borrower ceasing to occupy the property for reasons other than death, a borrower failing to occupy it for longer than twelve consecutive months because of physical or mental illness, failure to provide for the payment of property charges, and failure to perform an obligation under the mortgage.

Then the notices run in a fixed order. Under 24 CFR 206.125(a)(1) the mortgagee must notify the Commissioner within 60 days of the mortgage becoming due and payable under the death and conveyance conditions, or when a Deferral Period ends, and within 30 days for the conditions that need approval. Under 24 CFR 206.125(a)(2) the mortgagee must then notify the borrower, any Eligible Non-Borrowing Spouse, the borrower's estate and the borrower's heirs within 30 days of the later of notifying the Commissioner or receiving approval, and must give that party 30 days from the date of that notice to pay the balance in full, sell, deliver a deed in lieu of foreclosure, or correct the condition. Mortgagee Letter 2022-15 states the same notice duty and lists the three options the notice must describe: satisfy the HECM, sell the property for at least 95 percent of the appraised value, or provide a deed in lieu.

The date that governs the later deadlines is defined, and it is not the date of death. 24 CFR 206.129(d)(1) defines the due and payable date as the date when the mortgagee notifies, or should have notified, the Commissioner. Mortgagee Letter 2015-10, which predates the current regulation text, instead anchors the first legal action to the death of the last surviving mortgagor. Those are two different anchors, and which one a given servicer is working from is a question to put to that servicer in writing before anyone counts days. Ask for the due and payable date it has recorded, and the date it notified HUD.

The extension structure, which matters more than any single number

24 CFR 206.125(d)(1) requires the mortgagee to commence foreclosure within six months of the due date, "or within such additional time as may be approved by the Commissioner." That closing phrase is the whole subject. Mortgagee Letter 2015-10 sets out the structure: where the owners provide the mortgagee with evidence demonstrating active marketing of the property, including documentation of delays in sales or payoffs, or attempts to satisfy the mortgage balance, mortgagees may request from HUD "no more than two 90-day extensions to take the first legal action to initiate foreclosure." The same letter permits the mortgagee one further 90-day extension to commence foreclosure, but it attaches two conditions: that the mortgagor, their estate, or heir "was actively marketing the subject property or attempting to satisfy the HECM," and that "the additional time is not to provide the mortgagor, their estate, or heir(s) more time to market and sell the property or to satisfy the HECM balance." That third 90 days is the servicer's administrative time and the letter says in terms that it is not the family's selling time. On the letter's own structure the marketing runway is the six months plus at most two 90-day extensions.

Read that as a structure rather than a promise. Each extension is conditioned on documentation the family has to produce, the first two are requests to HUD and not entitlements, and the letter requires the servicer to record the expiration date in HUD's system and keep the marketing evidence in the servicing file. HUD's 2019 notice to heirs states both halves of the consumer-facing version in consecutive sentences: "The loan must be satisfied within 30 days of the date of the borrower's death. The lender may approve 90-day extensions with satisfactory documentation that the estate or heirs are actively trying to sell the property or repay the HECM loan." May. Not will. And that 30-day statement is a third starting point, beside the regulation's sequence at 24 CFR 206.125(a)(2), which runs notice to the estate first and then 30 days from the date of that notice, and beside the six months to commence foreclosure at 24 CFR 206.125(d)(1), measured from the due date. Three documents, three anchors. The only dates that apply to one loan are the ones the servicer has recorded and will state in writing.

There is a second reason not to lean on any number read anywhere, including here. HUD sets HECM servicing deadlines by Mortgagee Letter, and a letter in force when a page was written is not necessarily the letter in force when a family reads it. What applies to one loan on one date is what the servicer says in writing, and what a HUD-approved housing counselor or an attorney can confirm against the letters then in force. A verbal assurance from a call center is worth nothing in a probate file.

The 95 percent provision, and what it does and does not do

This provision is worth reading in the regulation's own words rather than in a summary. 24 CFR 206.125(a)(2)(ii) gives the estate or heirs the option to "sell the property for an amount not to be less than the amount determined by the Commissioner through notice, which shall not exceed 95 percent of the appraised value," with the net proceeds applied toward the outstanding loan balance. Note the structure: 95 percent is a ceiling on what HUD may require, not a figure the regulation itself sets. HUD's own documents then supply the figure. Mortgagee Letter 2022-15 requires the notice to the estate to say it may "sell the property for at least 95% of the appraised value," and the 2019 notice to heirs says that if the loan balance is more than the home is worth, the estate or heirs "may sell the home for at least 95-percent of the current appraised value and the lender will accept the net proceeds as satisfaction of the loan." Mortgagee Letter 2015-10 states it for this exact transaction, under the heading Claim Payment on Sale After Death: where a HECM is extinguished by sale or transfer after death, or at the end of a Deferral Period, a mortgagee may file a claim provided it receives in exchange "at least the lesser of: the mortgage balance; or ninety-five percent (95%) of the current appraised value of the property."

Two things in that language do the real work. First, it is a lesser-of test, so the 95 percent figure is the floor only while the balance is the larger number; where the balance is the lesser of the two, the balance is what has to be received. That is also how HUD frames the option in its notice to heirs, as the answer where the loan balance is more than the home is worth. And where the loan is already due and payable because the last surviving borrower has died, 24 CFR 206.125(c) sends the sale to that same provision: where the HECM is due and payable at the time the contract for sale is executed, the borrower or other party with legal right to dispose of the property may sell the property "in accordance with the amount established by" 24 CFR 206.125(a)(2)(ii). Second, the appraised value is the servicer's appraisal under 24 CFR 206.125(b). It is not a market opinion, not a tax roll figure, and not a comparative analysis from an agent.

The regulation also caps what can come out of the proceeds of such a sale: closing costs "shall not exceed the greater of: 11 percent of the sales price; or a fixed dollar amount as determined by the Commissioner through Federal Register notice." If a proposed deal carries costs above that, somebody is going to be told no late in the process, and it is better to learn that before a contract exists than after an inspection period has run.

Keeping the house, where HUD's own documents pull in different directions

One reading of this is that an heir who wants to keep the house can buy it from the estate for 95 percent of appraised value and the rest of the loan goes away. The primary sources do not line up that cleanly, and a family planning around the clean version should know so before it spends money.

On one side, 24 CFR 206.125(a)(2)(ii) closes with a definition: "For the purposes of this section, sell includes the transfer of title by operation of law." HUD's 2019 notice to heirs goes further and states that "any post death transfer is considered a 'sale' for these purposes." On the other side, that same one-page notice carries a heading reading Keeping the Home, under which it says that if you prefer to keep the home instead of selling it, "the HECM loan balance must be paid off in full."

Both of those sentences are HUD's. They can be reconciled in more than one way, and the reconciliation decides whether a family pays the balance or a discounted figure, which on an underwater house is the difference between keeping it and losing it. That is a question for a Florida attorney and for the servicer in writing, naming the FHA case number, before an heir borrows money or signs anything. Get the servicer's position on an heir purchase in a document, and get it before the appraisal goes stale.

The appraisal is the servicer's, and the servicer pays for it

24 CFR 206.125(b) requires the mortgagee to have the property appraised by an appraiser on the FHA roster, or another appraiser the Commissioner identifies, "no later than 30 days after receipt of the request by an applicable party in connection with a potential property sale." Mortgagee Letter 2015-10 sets the servicer's own trigger: an appraisal no later than 30 days after providing notice that the mortgage is due and payable, or after the mortgagee becomes aware of the death of the last surviving mortgagor.

The cost allocation is worth knowing. Under the same subsection the appraisal is at the requesting party's expense unless the mortgage is due and payable. If it is due and payable, the appraisal is at the mortgagee's expense, with a right to be reimbursed out of the proceeds of any sale by the borrower or other permissible party. An heir told to go and pay for an appraisal on a loan that has already been called due can reasonably ask the servicer to point to the authority for that.

Practically: ask for the appraisal, in writing, and ask for its effective date. The appraised value is the denominator in the 95 percent calculation, so a family planning a sale around that figure and a family that has never seen it are in two different negotiations. The regulation also requires the property to be appraised before a foreclosure sale with an effective date no more than 30 days before that sale, so valuations in this process expire and get reordered.

Non-recourse, and the case for handing the keys back

24 CFR 206.27(b)(8) is three sentences and they are the most reassuring text in the whole part: "The borrower shall have no personal liability for payment of the outstanding loan balance. The mortgagee shall enforce the debt only through sale of the property. The mortgagee shall not be permitted to obtain a deficiency judgment against the borrower if the mortgage is foreclosed." That is the opposite of the Florida default. Under section 702.01 all mortgages are foreclosed in equity, and under section 702.06 the entry of a deficiency decree is within the sound discretion of the court, subject to a cap for owner-occupied residential property. A HECM takes that discretion away as against the borrower.

So what the regulation does is require the mortgage to say those three things: no personal liability of the borrower, enforcement only through sale of the property, and no deficiency judgment against the borrower. How that applies to a particular estate, to the estate's other assets and obligations, and to any junior lienholder, who is not a party to that provision, is a question for the estate's attorney. What the regulation also does is name handing the keys back as an option rather than a failure. 24 CFR 206.125(f)(1)(i) requires the mortgagee to accept a deed in lieu of foreclosure from the borrower or other party with legal right to dispose of the property, "provided it is filed for recording within 9 months of the due date" and the mortgagee is able to obtain good and marketable title. 24 CFR 206.125(f)(1)(ii), the paragraph the regulation labels Cash for Keys, provides that the Commissioner may provide a financial incentive, in an amount to be determined by the Commissioner, paid by the mortgagee and reimbursed through a subsequent claim, where a borrower or other party with a legal right to do so deeds the property within six months of the due date.

If the balance is well above the value, the roof is at the end of its life, and no heir wants to live there, a deed in lieu can be the right call, and it earns no agent a commission. Whether it is right for a particular estate turns on whether title is marketable, on junior liens, on the estate's other assets, and on tax consequences no real estate agent should be opining on. Those are attorney and certified public accountant questions. It is also an option a family should hear named out loud rather than discover late, after the price has already been cut.

Junior liens can break the whole plan

24 CFR 206.125(c) is where a short-payoff sale either works or quietly fails. It requires the mortgagee to satisfy the mortgage of record, and the Commissioner to satisfy any second mortgage required under 24 CFR 206.27(d), "in order to facilitate the sale, provided that there are no junior liens" other than that HUD second mortgage, "and all the net proceeds from the sale are paid to the mortgagee."

Read that proviso twice. A sale at less than the balance depends on title being clear of everything except the HECM and HUD's second mortgage. In Miami-Dade the things that turn up behind a first mortgage include county water and sewer liens, code enforcement liens, unpaid non-ad valorem assessments, association claims on a condominium or in a homeowners association, a judgment against the deceased borrower, and a contractor's claim from work that was never closed out. A title search run at the start, rather than at contract, is what tells a family whether the 95 percent route is even available. Open permits are a separate problem with their own timeline, which the page on unpermitted work in Miami-Dade covers.

The second mortgage in HUD's favor can itself appear on a title commitment. 24 CFR 206.27(d) requires a second mortgage to the Commissioner, securing payments the Commissioner may make, to be given before the Mortgage Insurance Certificate is issued unless the Commissioner provides otherwise. Two mortgages on the search does not mean the parent borrowed twice.

Who can sign anything

None of the above can be acted on by a person with no authority over the property, and that authority comes from the probate side rather than from the loan. Except as otherwise provided by a decedent's will, section 733.607 gives every personal representative a right to, and a duty to, take possession or control of the decedent's property "except the protected homestead," with real property able to be left with or surrendered to the person presumptively entitled to it unless possession by the personal representative is necessary for purposes of administration. Both the opening words about the will and the carve-out matter, and whether a particular house is protected homestead is a legal determination, not a label a family or an agent can apply to it.

What a title company will require, which court steps have to happen in what order, and whether a sale needs a court order are the subject of the site's longer guide to selling inherited property in Miami-Dade, and they are questions for the estate's attorney. The relevant point here is sequencing. The HECM clock does not pause while an estate works out who may sign, so the probate petition and the written payoff request want to be moving at the same time rather than one after the other.

Heirs living in another state have a further layer, because signing, notarization and the servicer's identity requirements all have to work at a distance. The page on selling from out of state covers those mechanics.

If a surviving spouse was living there and was not on the loan

Where the last surviving borrower has died but a spouse who was never a borrower is living in the house, the question of whether anything is due at all changes. HUD's Deferral Period rules can postpone repayment and allow an Eligible Non-Borrowing Spouse to remain in the property, and 24 CFR 206.125(a)(1) treats the end of a Deferral Period, rather than the death, as the event that starts the notice sequence. HUD's 2019 notice to heirs states that a non-borrowing spouse must provide the lender with a Non-Borrowing Spouse Certification "within 30 days of the last surviving borrower's death," among other requirements.

The conditions are specific and they are not forgiving of missed paperwork. 24 CFR 206.41 requires a HECM counselor to have discussed with the borrower and an Eligible Non-Borrowing Spouse the requirement that the spouse obtain ownership of the property or another legal right to remain in it for life upon the death of the last surviving borrower, that a failure to do so will result in the HECM becoming due and payable with no Deferral Period, that the property must be the spouse's principal residence before and after the borrowing spouse's death, and that the spouse must fulfill the obligations of the mortgage including the payment of property charges. 24 CFR 206.57 then provides a 30-day cure that can reinstate a Deferral Period, with three listed exceptions.

Whether a particular spouse qualifies depends on the loan's case number assignment date, on the certifications the servicer holds, and on what the spouse can establish about title or a life right. Both Mortgagee Letter 2015-10 and Mortgagee Letter 2022-15 route cases with a case number issued before August 4, 2014 and a surviving non-borrowing spouse to separate letters of their own. That is an attorney question and a servicer question, and it is the one situation on this page where the right answer may be that no sale should be discussed at all.

Why this clock produces discounted cash offers

The pressure is structural. A family is inside a federal timeline it did not choose, the balance is growing while the house sits, the estate is carrying the taxes and the insurance, and a buyer who can close quickly is offering certainty. HUD's notice to heirs is blunt about where the carrying cost sits: "Property taxes and insurance on the property remain the responsibility of the borrower's estate until title is transferred."

What a family should do before accepting that trade is write down both numbers. The discount a quick-close buyer prices in is a real cost, and it has to be set against the real cost of the extra weeks, which is the interest and mortgage insurance accruing on the balance, the taxes and insurance the estate pays, and the risk that an extension is requested and not approved. Which way it comes out depends on those two numbers, and they have to be written down before the offer is answered. The page on a cash offer against a listing runs the arithmetic with the published fee structures and the closing cost splits, rather than repeating them here.

Two Miami-Dade items belong in that subtraction: the tax on the deed, and the title insurance premium the regional provision of the contract allocates. The Florida Department of Revenue states the county rate for documentary stamp tax as 60 cents on each $100, or portion thereof, of the total consideration, and the county surtax as 45 cents, which section 125.0167 caps at "45 cents for each $100 or fractional part thereof." The surtax carries an exclusion at section 201.031(1) and section 125.0167 for a document where the interest conveyed involves only a single-family residence, and both sections say that such a residence may be a condominium unit. Section 201.0205 addresses the inapplicability of a 10-cent increase in counties that implemented chapter 83-220; it names no county and no property type. Owner's title insurance is allocated by the contract rather than by law: the FloridaRealtors/FloridaBar AS IS form carries a regional provision covering Miami-Dade and Broward together, under which the buyer designates the closing agent and pays the owner's policy premium, and it is a negotiable term. The seller closing costs page itemizes the rest.

Who to call, in what order

First call: a HUD-approved housing counseling agency. HUD states that "foreclosure, eviction, and homeless counseling are always free," that other types of counseling and workshops may be offered for a nominal, reasonable and customary fee, that any fees must be disclosed prior to the beginning of housing counseling, and that participating agencies "must waive any fee the client cannot afford to pay." HUD's own list of service types names reverse mortgage counseling and mortgage delinquency and default resolution counseling as separate items, so which category an inquiry falls into, and therefore whether the always-free language covers it, is worth asking the agency when the appointment is made. HUD's number for finding an agency is 800-569-4287, with 202-708-1455 for TTY, and the agency search sits on HUD's own site. A counselor can read the servicer's letters with a family and is not selling anything.

Second call: a Florida attorney. Who may sign, whether the house is protected homestead, whether an heir purchase qualifies for the 95 percent treatment, and whether a deed in lieu is better than a sale for this estate are all legal questions with money attached to the answers. Third, in parallel and in writing: the servicer. 12 CFR 1024.31 defines a successor in interest by a list of transfers, which includes a transfer by devise, descent, or operation of law on the death of a joint tenant or tenant by the entirety; a transfer to a relative resulting from the death of a borrower; and a transfer where the spouse or children of the borrower become an owner of the property. Whether a given heir falls inside one of those categories is a question for the estate's attorney, and the servicer makes its own confirmation determination. 12 CFR 1024.30(d) provides that a confirmed successor in interest is considered a borrower for purposes of that subpart. A written request for information under 12 CFR 1024.36 must be acknowledged within five business days and answered within 30 business days, with one 15-business-day extension on written notice, subject to the exclusions in that section. One category is shorter: a request for the identity or address of the owner or assignee of the loan has to be answered within 10 business days under 1024.36(d)(2)(i)(A), and 1024.36(d)(2)(ii) bars the extension for it. Except as 12 CFR 1024.41(j) provides, a servicer of a reverse mortgage transaction is exempt from 12 CFR 1024.38 through 1024.41 under 12 CFR 1024.30(b)(2), so the request-for-information route is the one to use rather than the loss mitigation provisions. Ask for the payoff good through a stated date, the due and payable date of record, the date HUD was notified, the appraisal and its effective date, the servicer's position on an heir purchase, and any extension granted or denied.

Only then an agent, and only if a sale is the answer. I am a licensed Florida real estate sales associate and that is all I am. Not an attorney, not a certified public accountant, not an appraiser, and not an employee of your servicer, so there are questions on this page I am not permitted to answer and will not pretend to. If the right outcome for a family is a deed in lieu, or a counselor and a lawyer and no listing at all, that is the answer, and it pays me nothing. Where a sale is the answer, what I can do is read the title search early, tell you what the house will close at rather than what it could be listed at, and keep the contract dates honest against a federal clock that does not care about anyone's convenience.

Common questions

Related

• What happens to the house
• Cash offer or list it: the arithmetic on a south Miami-Dade house
• What selling actually costs you here
• Selling from out of state, and what Florida actually takes
• What your Miami-Dade house is worth, and what sets the number
• The addition nobody pulled a permit for
• The seller's tax bill is not your tax bill
• Every closing since 2021, as the MLS holds it

General information for Florida property owners and heirs. It is not legal, tax, insurance or mortgage advice, it is not a substitute for counsel, and nothing in it should be read as telling any reader what their own legal rights or obligations are. Zac Tranten is a licensed Florida real estate sales associate, license SL3576483, with Keys Gate Realty, 10 NE 3rd Street, Florida City, FL 33034; he is not an attorney, a certified public accountant, an appraiser, an insurance agent or a mortgage servicer. Federal regulation text was fetched on October 12, 2026 from the Government Publishing Office's published Code of Federal Regulations, title 24, volume 2, revised as of April 1, 2025: 24 CFR 206.27 for the required mortgage provisions, including the non-recourse language at paragraph (b)(8), the addition of mortgage insurance premium to principal at (b)(7), the due and payable conditions at paragraph (c) and the second mortgage to the Commissioner at paragraph (d); 24 CFR 206.41 for the counseling discussion required where there is an Eligible Non-Borrowing Spouse, whose paragraph (b)(2)(i) reads "upon the death of the last surviving borrower"; 24 CFR 206.57 for the 30-day cure that can reinstate a Deferral Period, with its three listed exceptions; 24 CFR 206.125 for the notice sequence at paragraph (a), the appraisal and its cost allocation at paragraph (b), the sale by a borrower or other permissible party at paragraph (c), which directs a sale made while the HECM is due and payable to the amount established by 24 CFR 206.125(a)(2)(ii) and carries the junior lien proviso, the six-month foreclosure commencement at paragraph (d), the deed in lieu at paragraph (f)(1)(i) and the Cash for Keys financial incentive at paragraph (f)(1)(ii); and 24 CFR 206.129(d)(1) for the definition of the due and payable date as the date the mortgagee notifies or should have notified the Commissioner. Regulation X was read the same day in the Office of the Federal Register's published electronic Code of Federal Regulations at 12 CFR 1024.30, 1024.31 and 1024.36: 1024.31 defines a successor in interest by five listed transfers, the first of which is a transfer by devise, descent, or operation of law on the death of a joint tenant or tenant by the entirety, followed by a transfer to a relative resulting from the death of a borrower and a transfer where the spouse or children of the borrower become an owner, so the page lists the categories rather than generalizing them; 1024.30(d) treats a confirmed successor in interest as a borrower for purposes of the subpart; 1024.30(b) opens "Except as otherwise provided in 1024.41(j)" and exempts a servicer with respect to any reverse mortgage transaction at (b)(2); and 1024.36 carries the request for information timeline of five days and 30 days, excluding legal public holidays, Saturdays and Sundays, with one 15-day extension on written notice and listed exclusions. HUD documents were read in full on October 12, 2026: the one-page notice titled Inheriting a Home Secured by an FHA-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage, dated September 2019, for the description of a HECM, the statement that the loan must be satisfied within 30 days of the date of the borrower's death, the 90-day extension sentence that immediately follows it, the 95 percent language framed as applying where the balance exceeds value, the non-borrowing spouse certification, the "any post death transfer" sentence, the Keeping the Home paragraph and the statement that taxes and insurance remain the estate's responsibility; Mortgagee Letter 2015-10, dated April 23, 2015, for the due and payable timeline, the appraisal triggers, the six-month first legal action, the two HUD 90-day extensions, the mortgagee's one additional 90-day extension and its proviso that the additional time "is not to provide the mortgagor, their estate, or heir(s) more time to market and sell the property or to satisfy the HECM balance," and the Claim Payment on Sale After Death provision requiring the mortgagee to receive at least the lesser of the mortgage balance or ninety-five percent of the current appraised value; and Mortgagee Letter 2022-15, dated August 31, 2022, which modified the notice requirement in ML 2015-10 from within 30 days of the date of the borrower's death to within 30 days of providing notice of the borrower's death to the Secretary, and which lists the three options the notice must state. Where the regulation and ML 2015-10 anchor the six-month period to different dates, and where HUD's consumer notice states a third anchor, those differences are reported rather than resolved, because resolving them for a particular loan is the servicer's and HUD's call; HUD sets these servicing deadlines by Mortgagee Letter, so the letters in force on a given date should be confirmed before any deadline is relied on. The amount the Commissioner sets by notice under 24 CFR 206.125(a)(2)(ii), the fixed dollar alternative to the 11 percent closing cost cap, and the Cash for Keys amount are all left to the Commissioner, and no dollar figure is stated here for any of them because none was read in a primary source. Housing counseling cost and contact statements are quoted from HUD's own About Housing Counseling page, checked October 12, 2026, including that foreclosure, eviction and homeless counseling are always free, that other counseling may carry a nominal, reasonable and customary fee that must be disclosed in advance, that agencies must waive any fee a client cannot afford to pay, the number 800-569-4287 with 202-708-1455 for TTY, and that same page's list of service types, which names reverse mortgage counseling and mortgage delinquency and default resolution counseling as separate items. Florida statutory language was re-fetched on October 12, 2026 from the Florida Legislature's published statutes and is cited in plain text without a year, so the build links to the current edition: s. 733.607, titled Possession of estate, which opens "Except as otherwise provided by a decedent's will" before giving the personal representative the right and duty to take possession of the decedent's property except the protected homestead; s. 702.01, titled Equity, under which all mortgages shall be foreclosed in equity; s. 702.06, titled Deficiency decree; common-law suit to recover deficiency, for the court's discretion over a deficiency and the cap for owner-occupied residential property; s. 125.0167, titled Discretionary surtax on documents; adoption; application of revenue, which caps the surtax at 45 cents for each $100 or fractional part thereof and excludes a document where the interest conveyed involves only a single-family residence, adding that such a residence may be a condominium unit; s. 201.031, titled Discretionary surtax; administration and collection; Housing Assistance Loan Trust Fund; reporting requirements, which carries the same single-family exclusion including the condominium unit and sets no rate; and s. 201.0205, titled Counties that have implemented ch. 83-220; inapplicability of 10-cent tax increase by s. 2, ch. 92-317, which operates only by reference, names no county and states no rate. The Miami-Dade rates themselves come from the Florida Department of Revenue's documentary stamp tax page, checked October 12, 2026, which states the county rate as 60 cents on each $100 or portion thereof of the total consideration, the county surtax as 45 cents, and that the surtax is not due on a document that transfers only a single-family dwelling. The owner's title insurance allocation is read from the FloridaRealtors/FloridaBar AS IS Residential Contract for Sale and Purchase, which carries a regional provision covering Miami-Dade and Broward together under which the buyer designates the closing agent and pays the premiums for the owner's policy; it is a negotiable contract term and not a legal allocation, and the site's seller closing costs page groups the two counties the same way. The 98.88% ratio and the MLS-wide 97.42% are the same metric computed by the MLS over the same window beginning July 2021, taken from the MIAMI MLS Agent Production and Inventory Report, which any agent or broker can pull against license SL3576483; no transaction count is published, and no past closing predicts any particular outcome. Verify anything specific with a Florida probate attorney, a qualified tax professional, a HUD-approved housing counseling agency, the loan servicer or the FHA Resource Center. Equal Housing Opportunity.