The reverse mortgage is a loan and like any other loan, the borrower still owns the property. You can sell your home any time you wish. The loan has two Deeds of Trust and two Notes so that if HUD needs to advance funds, they will be covered as well and the amount that is recorded is for 150% of the property value or the HUD lending limit, whichever is less. So, it appears that the amount of the loan is very high but remember, the loan amount can continue to rise if you never make any payments and you continue to borrow against your line of credit. For this reason, HUD does not know where the loan amount will stop since they do not know how long you will have the loan or how much you will borrow against it and they do not want to limit you. But you only owe what you borrow plus the fees to set up the loan and any interest that accrues (and of course any money they need to advance on your behalf, if any). So, if my not be uncommon in higher value areas to have a Deed recorded for $800,000 but the borrower only owing $100,000 if that is all they borrowed with interest and the $100,000 would be all they needed to repay when they sold the home. It is similar to any other credit line. You may have a line of credit for one amount, but you only need to repay whatever the outstanding balance is at the time you repay the line. And not only can you sell your property any time you wish and repay the loan, there is never a prepayment penalty with a reverse mortgage.