Bank of America Announces New Pilot Program

Last month, Bank of America announced a pilot program that will provide some distressed property homeowners with a new foreclosure alternative. This new "Mortgage to Lease" program will allow homeowners facing foreclosure to remain in their homes by converting from home ownership to rental.

In this program, participating homeowners will transfer their home titles to Bank of America for forgiveness of all outstanding mortgage debt. Then Bank of America will lease the home to the former homeowner for up to three years at a rental price less than their mortgage payments, making payments affordable. After the three-year rental period, Bank of America will sell the acquired houses to investors.

For now, the "Mortgage to Lease" program will only affect 1,000 specifically selected Bank of America customers in Arizona, Nevada, and New York. During this initial phase, Bank of America will explore customer, community, and investor reactions and assess the feasibility and practicality of expanding the program.

In order to qualify, the homeowner must meet the following criteria:

• Have a Bank of America loan without junior liens
• Be delinquent 60 days on their mortgage payments
• Be "underwater" on their mortgage
• Must have exhausted other foreclosure alternatives
• Foreclosure must be eminent
• And the homeowner must be occupying the home

Because this program has received national media attention, you may receive questions from homeowners about it. If you do, you can simply explain that this program is tiny and for now will affect less than one-tenth of one percent of all the homeowners with a problem. Remember, Bank of America will be hand-selecting and notifying homeowners for the initial launch.

UPDATE: Bank of America is adding new requirements to their short sale process starting April 13. Alex will give you all the details April 10 on a special, critical update broadcast. Register for the broadcast at http://www.cdpelive.com/120410-bofa.