Citigroup to help troubled homeowners

Citigroup just announced a plan that will let homeowners that cannot pay their mortgages (and don't qualify for any federal relief funds) to stay in their homes for up to 6 months before foreclosure, providing that at the end of the time period, the homeowners turn over the keys to the bank and leave the home in good condition without damage.  What banks see a lot with foreclosures (and I have seen this WAY too many times myself, especially in places like Greeley) is this: the homeowner knows they are going to lose their home on a certain day.  A couple days before the eviction, that homeowner takes all the appliances and sells them.  Sometimes they will break into the walls and grab all the copper pipe too, basically anything that has any value whatsoever.  This alone will reduce the value of the bank's asset certainly. 

What REALLY does the damage for banks is the truly vindictive people.  Sometimes what they will do is stuff all the drains and toilets with towels or what have you, grab their things, let the water run, and leave.  Most times the banks won't know this has happened for a few days at the earliest, at which point the damage is unfixable.  A lot of times these types of homes have to be stripped to the studs, and have a full mold remediation (generally by a company that specializes in such things, sometimes known environmental hygenists).  This is the last thing that any bank wants to deal with.  I saw just this situation in my neighborhood...if the home had not had mold, it would have sold for around $150k.  But since it did have mold, and the bank sold it as is, it went for $108k!   See what I am saying? 

Fannie Mae offering subsidy to buy their foreclosures

This is really exciting.  My wife and I are actually in the market for a new home right now, and we are really looking hard at Fannie Mae Homepath properties.  Fannie is offering up to 3.5% for closing costs or new appliances (partnered with Whirlpool) or a combination of the two.  This is a great incentive, especially because we all know most foreclosures need a LOT of work, so we need to save our cash for that.  Although we are also looking at Homepath Renovation Mortgage financing too, which would allow us to finance our fix-up costs and just get it all done upfront.

We put our house on the market just last week, had our first two open houses Sat and Sun, they went GREAT!  Wish us luck as we try to get this place under contract and move into something else!

Ben