CitiMortgage to the Rescue

The implosion of the residential property market has spread a pall of doom over the lives of millions of homeowners and it is often impossible for many to see any light in the resultant financial gloom. Fortunately for some who have come to accept terms such as short sale and foreclosure as part of their day-to-day vocabularies, there is indeed a silver lining among the storm clouds.

Borrowers who are lucky enough to have CitiMortgage as their lender may encounter a saving grace in what, for most, is their worst nightmare. One of the US’s largest mortgage servicers, CitiMortgage recently announced the inception of a new pilot program which may well see many embattled homeowners facing immanent foreclosure either keep their homes or receive substantial assistance in finding alternative solutions.

According to Sanjiv Das, CitiMortgage CEO, the company is primarily committed to helping homeowners keep their homes. Sadly though, the realities of the situation are that many simply can’t and loosing their homes becomes inevitable. It is these cases which stand to benefit the most from CitiMortgage’s new Foreclosure Alternatives Program.

This unique program offers homeowners facing foreclosure several welcome benefits to ease the process and allow them to make the transition with the minimum of trauma and upheaval.  This program takes existing deed-in-lieu systems and expands their range of benefits and has been described by Das as deed-in-lieu on steroids.

The program will, in exchange for the property deed, allow homeowners to stay on in their homes for six months with no mortgage payments. At the end of this period CitiMortgage will assist the borrower with a minimum of $1,000 towards relocation costs and will provide professional relocation counseling services. The company will also foot the bill for a number of property expenses should the borrower no longer be able to pay for them.

In addition to these benefits Citi will also forgive any shortfall between the property value and the outstanding mortgage. All these make for an impressive amount of assistance at a time when it is sorely needed by many Americans. Das has expressed the hope that other industry members join in the drive to help distressed borrowers. One can only hope that they do.