Closing USA was recently selected by 24 Asset Management Corporation to provide title and closing services for the National Association of Real Estate Brokers’ Homeowner’s Assurance Program.
The $1.2 billion mitigation program was launched by NAREB in late February to help reverse the effects of the mortgage crisis in the hardest-hit communities by buying, repairing and reselling properties currently owned by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other financial services institutions to borrowers who are struggling to either stay or purchase a home.
According to RealtyTrac, five million families lost their homes to foreclosure between 2007 and 2011. In 2012, lenders are projected to repossess another one million homes as foreclosure processing accelerates.
“We couldn’t be more excited to be part of this initiative, which will absolutely breath new life into communities across the country,” said Elliot Foo, president and CEO of the Rochester, N.Y.-based minority-certified Closing USA in a press release. “Having historic numbers of bank-owned properties isn’t good for anyone, and the innovative HAP model of buying, renovating properties and providing access to mortgages for people with less than ideal credit will bring homeownership within reach of many for whom it has been just a dream. All of which should spark a real estate renaissance in these communities, and in the process, turn these REO houses bank into homes.”
The program is currently being tested in Atlanta and is expected to expand into the Los Angeles, Houston, Miami and Baltimore markets in the beginning of the second quarter.
Foo said that NAREB real estate agents drive the program because they allow first time homebuyers and others who have been “sitting on the sidelines” to take part in the sales process.
Once a contract is reached between a bank and buyer, Closing USA will do their job to manage the transactions in the HAP markets.
“Closing USA’s REO title and closing services will make the disposition of these REO assets simple, seamless and certain,” Foo said. “Through our national closing network, our associates will manage every step of the process, from contract to close.”
