Meet my landlord, Mr. Mac (but you can call him Freddie)

From a Freddie Mac press release comes this “news.” Freddie Mac is launching a rental initiative, which will give former owners and tenants of foreclosed property the opportunity to lease their recently foreclosed properties month to month.The REO rental initiative will be managed by HomeSteps, Freddie Mac’s national real estate unit, and implemented through several national property management firms. Freddie Mac has about 8,500 properties in various stages of foreclosure.

Freddie Mac also will continue to suspend evictions through March 31 to ensure that former owners and occupants have an opportunity to explore new options available to them.

To qualify for a lease, the tenant or former owner must occupy the property and show they have adequate income to pay the monthly rental amount established by the property management company based on market rents for the area. Occupants must agree to allow HomeSteps to show the home to potential buyers during the lease period.

As I read this there’s good and bad implications apparent in it. I guess it’s good that the former owners get to stay put; but then, that’s bad too, because having any tenants, much less the former owners, in the place makes it ten times harder to sell. Tenant have a tendency to make it hard to show a place, especially on short notice.

You’ve got to love a brainstorming group where not only is no idea too dumb to mention it’s never too dumb to try either. Maybe Freddie Mac will figure out a way to do a lease with option to buy for the people that they just foreclosed on. Of course they’ll find that they just ruined their credit with the foreclosure, but hey that’s just another little glitch to the creative politicos who are coming up with these schemes.

So to bottom-line this thing: you get foreclosed by Freddie Mac who throws you out and assumes your mortgage and then invites you back at a reduced lease rate(because the "market rents for the area" are almost assuredly going to be less than what you were paying on the mortgage - is this a great country or what?