The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper



Vol. 17 No. 19 - February 22, 2017

BUSINESS

Mermaid showing no signs of slowing down

LaPensee Plumbing Pools Air

chantelle lewin | SUN

The Sign of the Mermaid has been doing business in
Anna Maria for 25 years.

ANNA MARIA – Ed Spring wants folks to know that it's business as usual at his Sign of the Mermaid restaurant, even though the restaurant property was recently sold.

"I wanted to stop the rumors going around. In a nutshell, we sold the property a few months back due to a divorce that had to settled through the court. I leased the property back from the new owner for six years and our goal is to continue on with the Sign of the Mermaid as we have for the last 25 years," Spring said.

"The new owners have no intention of tearing the building down because they're into the old style of Florida, and they want the operation to continue on," he added.

"Both my daughters are still there – Kellie Garden and Serena Spring. They're still running the restaurant for me. Serena does the kitchen, and Kellie does the dining room and manages the whole operation. I've got pretty much the same kitchen crew that I had before, and we're increasing it with new employees and working with a new chef. And I'm still the main force behind everything," Spring explained.

He also wanted to dispel any rumors about the Sign of the Mermaid's signature desserts.

"We're still making the homemade pies, cakes and wedding cakes like we have for the past 25 years, and nothing has changed. They're our recipes, and they have been since day one," Spring said.

According to Spring, the only real changes in store include the addition of some new menu items and the seasonal expansion of the restaurant's hours of operations.

"Our hours change on a regular basis because we go along with the season. Right now we're doing dinner six nights a week (Tuesday through Sunday) and breakfast and lunch five days a week (Wednesday through Sunday)," Spring said. "There will be times in March and April that we're running seven days a week and we'll let everybody know through our voice mail and our e-mails."

The Sign of the Mermaid is located at 9707 Gulf Dr. in Anna Maria and the restaurant phone number is 941-778-9399. You can visit the restaurant online at http://signofthemermaid.wixsite.com/themermaid or on Facebook.

Anna Maria Island Sun News Story

Reverse mortgages worth another look

Investment Corner

I have written about reverse mortgages over the years, at least twice here in the Sun. My advice was that reverse mortgages were expensive for the borrower, but in the case where a retired person or couple had run out of assets, using the equity in their home through a reverse mortgage wasn’t the worst idea in the world.

I’m bringing the topic back one more time because some changes in federal guidelines have made the reverse mortgage a more attractive option for those who are over age 62, that own their home free and clear of another mortgage and who are concerned about the possibility of running low on retirement income during their lifetime

Space limitations don’t’ allow us to go into a full primer on reverse mortgages, but let’s hit some of the highlights.

• Fees are down: The up front mortgage insurance premium applied to all reverse mortgages was reduced from 2.5 percent of the loan amount to 0.5 percent by the Reverse Mortgage Stabilization Act of 2013, as long as the borrower doesn’t tap more than 60 percent of the available credit balance in the first year. Other fees have been standardized and are roughly in line with a traditional home mortgage, but often lenders will issue credits to offset some or all of these other expenses.

• Education: Borrowers are required to attend a consumer counseling session to make sure they understand the nature of the reverse mortgage. The cost of this session is $125

• Borrowing limit: The limit for reverse mortgage credit lines depends on the age of the youngest borrower, current interest rates and the lenders margin. Generally, you can access about half of the value of your principal resident, up to a current maximum value of $625,000.

• Payments: You don’t need to make payment on a reverse mortgage. The money you borrow and accrued interest must be repaid when you no longer live in the home. This can be through a move to another location, or if you pass away. The home will then be sold, the reverse mortgage paid off and any excess above that can be left to heirs.

In the past, advice was generally to take out the reverse mortgage as a last resort when it was obvious additional funds may be needed. Under current guidelines, that advice is outdated. Reverse mortgage lines of credit actually grow over time, giving the borrower the ability to borrow more. So, the current advice in most situations is to establish the line of credit in your mid-60s, when eligible, and instead of borrowing, just let the line of credit rest with a zero balance.

A line of credit for about $125,000 will grow to about $190,000 in 10 years, 290,000 in 20 years and over $440,000 in 30 years. Establishing, but not accessing the line of credit until later in retirement gives the retiree a lot of flexibility. The exact loan characteristics are influenced by the age(s) of the borrowers as well as the current level of interest rates.

In summary, for those who may find themselves real estate rich and liquid asset challenged, a reverse mortgage may be a good option.

Tom Breiter is president of Breiter Capital Management, Inc., an Anna Maria based investment advisor. He can be reached at 778-1900. Some of the investment concepts highlighted in this column may carry the risk of loss of principal, and investors should determine appropriateness for their personal situation before investing. Visit www.breitercapital.com.

 


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