Bank of America Launches “Mortgage to Lease” Program

• March 23, 2012
• 2 Comments

by UrbanTurf Staff

Bank of America has launched a pilot program aimed at allowing homeowners facing foreclosure to stay in their homes by renting them back from the bank.

The program is called “Mortgage to Lease” and in short, this is how it would work. The property owner would transfer title of the distressed home to Bank of America. In exchange, the bank would forgive any outstanding debt and lease the home back to the owner for up to three years at or below the current market rental rate. The thinking is that the transfer of the deed would be less costly for the bank than pursuing the foreclosure and would do less damage to the owner’s credit.

The pilot program is limited to Bank of America customers who are over 60 days delinquent on their mortgage payments and have explored other foreclosure relief options. The bank is reaching out to 1,000 homeowners in states that have been hard hit by foreclosures, including Arizona, Nevada and New York, and based on the success of that effort will expand from there.

Similar Posts:

• Another Look at Renting Out Foreclosures
• February Housing Report: Low Inventory/Foreclosures, High Contract Activity

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/bank_of_americas_foreclosure_renting_solution/5326

2 Comments

1. Dana Hollish Hill said at 4:59 am on Sunday March 25, 2012:
   So, if you are one of the chosen few to participate in this program, you can make it easier and cheaper for Bank of America to take your home away from you and then you get to have them as your landlord until the market goes up and they can sell your home to someone else. Why would any home owner want to help BOA like that? Bank of America is slow to foreclose and they are no longer going to be able to robo-sign so now they want you to feel privelleged to be chosen to hand your deed over to them. Wow! If these people can pay rent, I'm sure BOA could find a way to modifiy their loans so they could keep their homes.

1. DC Buyer said at 4:13 pm on Sunday March 25, 2012:
   I don't support this program either. Why would anyone who can live for rent free for years now want to start to pay rent? Because now their credit will not be affected as much? I have two response to this theory: If people are taking advantage of this situation, they either do not have much sense of shame any way, and they will continue to live in there for free; if they agree to join the program, then the public won't be able to tell good apples from bad apples since their credit will not be affected (much). People in this area are dying to buy foreclosures and a halt in foreclosure will make supply shortage more severe.