Is this as bad an idea as I think it is?
Not a bad idea if you don’t care about or don’t have anyone who might benefit from inheriting your home or it’s value.
Otherwise your beneficiaries will have to absorb the loan when they inherit the property, a tax on your kids and grandkids. It may be a reverse mortgage but it’s still a loan to be paid back when you die by whoever get’s the property.
You said a tax on kids and grandkids...no...it's no different than any money owed that the estate is responsible for. Would it be a tax if the local bank had loaned the money for a conventional loan? A tax for our Kids and Grand Kids is what zero is doing to America.