Nationwide Sales Promotion Of Freddie Mac-Owned Homes
May 17th, 2011
Agents who sell a Freddie Mac-owned home off of an offer received between May 16th and July 31st of this year will receive an extra $1,200 in bonuses from the government-controlled GSE as long as they close before September 30, 2011[1]. The properties must be part of the Freddie Mac HomeSteps program and sold to owner-occupant buyers. To help agents out, Freddie will potentially cover up to 3.5 percent of the buyer’s closing costs as long as the offers are made and the deals closed by the dates delineated in the incentive program.
Freddie Mac hopes to use the incentives to get rid of some of its 65,174 REO homes, which cost it $159,000 in maintenance alone in the first quarter of 2011. Given that REO acquisition is expected to accelerate, the GSE needs to get as many of these properties off its hands as possible as quickly as possible.
Do you think that the potential benefits of getting rid of REOs outweighs the cost of the incentive program for Freddie Mac?
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Let us know what you think about this essentially taxpayer-funded incentive in the space below.
[1] http://www.dsnews.com/articles/freddie-mac-offering-selling-agent-bonuses-to-move-reos-2011-05-16
May 17th, 2011 at 8:01 AM
how do I get a list of the Freddie owned properties in South Carolina ?
This is the Freddie Mac site that lists all of FM’s properties for sale. HomeSteps homes are eligible for the incentive and some others may be too. http://www.freddiemac.com/corporate/buyown/english/properties/. Hope this helps! ~Carole
May 17th, 2011 at 8:33 AM
Simple math says $78,100 in incentives vs $159,000 in maintenance fees-if they sold them all. Makes sense to me. Add in the help to buyers for closing cost and maybe they lose money up front but in the long run they still win. I say kudos for trying to eliminate some inventory.
May 17th, 2011 at 10:49 AM
Here we go again with another dumb and very stupid program that the government has come up with through our Freddie Mac guys that the taxpayers will be paying for and they don’t even know it.
If you do the numbers (dollars I mean) on this plan, it will cost the taxpayers more than 3 plus billion dollars and growing. How dumb is that! There is a way to resolve this foreclosure nightmare calamity. I have the answer. Fire everybody at Freddie Mac and start all over again. Out of my 42 years in real estate, I have never seen so many people doing real estate that do not have a clue of what they are doing. This answer to this problem could be resolved in less than 30 days, and I am the man to do it.