STATES, CITIES To Get First Crack at Bank-Owned Foreclosed Homes!
NEW BANK OF AMERICA PROGRAM WILL MAKE IT EASIER FOR MUNICIPAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS TO ACQUIRE, RE-SELL DISTRESSED PROPERTIES!
As home foreclosures surge in many Chicago Neighborhoods, and across the U.S., opportunistic investors have appeared hoping to purchase these homes at bargain prices, fix them up, and eventually resell them when the market turns positive. If history is a good teacher - eventually, things will begin to turn up!
If a new plan by the Bank of America works as conceived, as reported by Mary Ellen Podmolik in today's Chicago Tribune, it will be local and state government entities, receiving Neighborhood Stabilization Program grants from HUD, that will be placed on a faster track to get notification of bank-owned homes. It would be hoped that these local governments would be more effective in repairing and rehabbing these former bank-owned properties, and fairly reselling them to prospective homebuyers in specific areas most severely impacted by the U.S. Housing Crisis.
The Bank of America Proposal would allow cities and other governments to view lists of properties available for sale before they are listed with local real estate agents and published on the MLS. Governments would also get immediate access to BOA Real Estate Owned (REO Properties) through a special, secure web site.
Communities will be able to more easily buy multiple properties in one transaction. In an effort to simply the purchase process for these government entities, Bank of America will dedicate a special contact person for the city or state department.
The bank's hope is that local government housing departments can purchase and re-market properties quicker than private investors can. For REO's in need of the most serious repair, or those not reasonably repairable, the bank would donate these homes to cities, or sell them at a very low price, in exchange for having the municipality demolish them.
DEAN MOSS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
