The Obama administration is trying its level best to give a push to the American economy. In a bid to put a brake on foreclosures and revive the housing industry, the Federal government has come up with Neighborhood Stabilization Program – a plan under which grants will be given to harried homeowners.
Now the Bank of America plans to make it easier for city residents to buy foreclosed homes in Michigan, redevelop them and sell the homes. Communities, therefore, will be able to buy the homes cheap before they are taken over by the investors. As soon as a Bank of America owned property comes up in the market for sale, the cities will be notified. This will be done before the properties get listed on the listing service.
Another key point of the program is that the communities will also be able to get information about the bank’s real estate owned (REO Homes) property in a particular website. Communities can also buy many properties at a time and Bank of America will assign one employee to each community to streamline the process. This should hasten the process of moving the foreclosed properties from banks to the homeowners. That will definitely be a win-win situation for both the bank and the residents.
Katie Ludwig, finance manager in a city's Department of Community Development, says, it is better to get hold of a property as soon as it falls vacant. If a property is unoccupied for a long time, then its condition generally deteriorates. Ludwig says that sooner a space is retrieved it is better, and it should be done before investors can take it over.
The Bank of America does not want to discuss property prices at the initial stages. Rather the communities can scroll through the properties listed on the websites. Some carry price tags while others do not. It is the intention of the bank that communities should contact it about properties they are interested in.
Rob Grossman, senior vice president of community affairs for Bank of America, says the bank will assign a price to a particular property but it does not want to haggle with the price. The interested party should be either ready to pay it or leave the negotiation table. Grossman says that the Bank of America is trying to strike a balance between communities and investors who have the legal papers of these homes. The bank hopes to offer the best price to the communities.
