A new “fixer-upper” affordable housing program developed by a real estate broker for the Land Bank of Kansas City, MO, may not only help lower-income borrowers purchase a home but prove to be a profitable niche for FHA 203(k) lenders. The KC Land Bank initiative extends affordable mortgage loans to homebuyers looking to purchase and rehabilitate abandoned vacant homes in 21 neighborhoods in Kansas City. The vacant residential properties are acquired through a tax foreclosure auction and the aim is to sell them to borrowers in the same neighborhood where the property is located. Financing for the purchase and rehabilitation of a Land Bank home is mostly through the FHA 203(k) program, according to Ted Ihde, a licensed real-estate broker who developed the program and markets the homes through neighborhood housing groups. The program addresses an urban problem that ...