My Dad had a reverse mortgage on his home for about 9 years until he died in 2007 - he took a lump sum at first, 30 or 40 grand and then went to monthly installments after that. We had one year after he passed away to repay his debt, which was about 160k - when the house sold, the mortgage company got their money back and we received the balance. He could have received up to a million dollars had he lived long enough - I notice the TV commercials for these loans are not as common as ten years ago.
So there was time to sell and (hopefully) realize a profit and keep the house?