9NEWS.com | Denver | Colorado's Online News Leader | New plan gives government first dibs on foreclosures

9NEWS.com | Denver | Colorado's Online News Leader | New plan gives government first dibs on foreclosures

AURORA - A new program allows government agencies and their partners to have exclusive purchase rights on foreclosed homes before families, investors and the rest of the private market is allowed to bid.

9Wants to Know has learned the initiative, called First Look, is touted as a tool to maximize an effort funded with federal taxpayer dollars to fix-and-flip homes in distressed neighborhoods.

Critics argue First Look is government intrusion into the real estate marketplace that will impact families looking to purchase and live in a foreclosed house.

Charles Roberts, a Realtor with Your Castle Real Estate in Denver, called the recently-announced government initiative "appalling."

"They're changing the rules. They're tilting it in their favor," Roberts said. "They actually get an opportunity to buy a house before a homeowner, which doesn't make any sense to me at all."

First Look will be utilized by grantees in the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP).

Since 2008, the NSP has used billions in federal tax money with the aim of shoring up troubled neighborhoods plagued by foreclosures and abandoned homes. The homes are resold to low-income and moderate-income families at or below the cost to the government or participating non-profit.

First Look offers NSP grantees including state and local governments and non-profit organizations an exclusive one to two day window to express interest in a property. Those governments and nonprofits will have five to 12 days to close the deal before the property is opened to the private market.

The initiative is a partnership between HUD, the Stabilization Trust and financial institutions holding an estimated 75 percent of the bank-owned properties in the U.S.

Government, Government, Government--Nobody but Government!