United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2000-05-12 monographic deposited born digital 48 p. GA 1.13:RCED-00-117 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-117 P0b002ee18038cbbc f:rc00117 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-117 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-117 RCED-00-117 Housing programs Contract administration Contract performance Foreclosures Marketing Property disposal Federal property management Mortgage programs Internet HUD Single Family Acquired Asset Management System Letter Report RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) management and marketing contracts of single-family housing, focusing on HUD's: (1) experience with the contractors who manage and market these properties; and (2) progress in reducing its single-family property inventory.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) the central focus of HUD's management and marketing contracts is on getting properties sold; (2) in response, contractors have been increasingly aggressive at selling properties by using the Internet and other mechanisms to publicize the properties; (3) however, HUD has experienced problems with these contractors on a number of fronts; (4) since the contracts became effective in April 1999, 6 of the 7 contractors have had significant problems with carrying out their responsibilities particularly in regard to securing and properly maintaining the properties assigned to them; (5) for example, Intown Management Group, which had 7 of the 16 contracts involving about 40 percent of the properties, had problems with meeting almost all of HUD's performance requirements; (6) after trying unsuccessfully to secure better performance from InTown, HUD terminated all seven of the firm's contracts; (7) HUD selected three replacement contractors from among the remaining firms to absorb most of Intown's workload; (8) however, two of the three contractors that HUD selected were already having performance problems under their existing contracts; (9) HUD staff have limited contractor incentives or tools available--short of terminating contracts--to enforce contractors' compliance and improve performance; (10) HUD's inventory of acquired single-family properties at the end of fiscal year (FY) 1999 was 32 percent higher than it was a year earlier and over 100 percent higher than it was at the end of FY 1996; (11) HUD's new management and marketing contractors increased the total number of properties sold from the inventory during FY 1999, and the total number of properties in the inventory has now begun to decline; (12) however, the contractors have made relatively little progress disposing of older properties--properties in the inventory 6 months or longer; (13) in fact, as of February 2000, about 20,000 of HUD's properties were in the inventory 6 months or longer--up from 13,000 properties in April 1999, the first month of the contracts; and (14) while HUD encourages contractors to sell properties quickly, it does not provide incentives for the contractors to focus on properties that have been in the inventory for a long period of time. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-117/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-117.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-117/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-117.pdf GAO/RCED-00-117 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-117 Letter Report GAO/RCED-00-117; Single-Family Housing: Stronger Measures Needed to; Housing programs Contract administration Contract performance Foreclosures Marketing Property disposal Federal property management Mortgage programs Internet HUD Single Family Acquired Asset Management System