Looking for a deal where the home seller pledges in advance to contribute potentially thousands of dollars to your closing costs?

If so, check out the summer sale terms available from two of the largest and most motivated sellers of foreclosed homes in the country — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

You may know the companies for their troubled mortgage businesses or the financial foibles that crashed them into the control of federal conservators in 2008. But the flip side of those problems is that they now have massive numbers of properties taken back through foreclosures.

Fannie Mae had 153,549 of them at the end of the first quarter. Freddie Mac owned 65,174. That’s nearly 220,000 houses for which they need to find new owners — quickly — or they’ll rack up even bigger losses for taxpayers.

To move that bulging inventory, both companies have begun time-limited sales campaigns with significant incentives for new owner-occupant purchasers — no investors allowed — and even extra cash for the real estate agents who bring buyers to the table.

Fannie and Freddie both are offering to pay up to 3.5 percent of the price of the house toward buyers’ closing costs, plus they’ll hand over a bonus of $1,200 to participating real estate agents. Fannie’s program covers properties on which contracts are accepted and close no later than Oct. 31. Freddie’s sale requires contracts no later than July 31 and closings by Sept. 30.

Fannie’s program even offers mortgage money to help finance these purchases, sometimes with as little as a 3 percent down payment. The company also has what it calls a “renovation mortgage” option that provides additional mortgage amounts to cover fix-ups.

Freddie does not offer special mortgage financing for buyers during the sale period, but has other inducements including two-year home warranties and 30 percent discounts on appliances.

All the foreclosed properties are listed with photos and descriptions at either HomePath.com (Fannie) or HomeSteps.com (Freddie), where you can search by price, local markets, ZIP codes and entire states. They run the spectrum from expensive detached homes, low-budget urban condos and suburban tract townhouses nationwide.

Featured offerings on HomePath recently included, a six-bedroom, five-bath house in Littleton, Colo., with 4,990 square feet of space at an asking price of $424,900, a two-bedroom condo with 1,164 square feet in Las Vegas for $43,999 and a four-bedroom, two-bath house in Brentwood, Md., for $65,000.

The summer clearance sales are part of rapidly accelerating efforts by both companies to get ahead of the tidal waves of foreclosures flowing into their portfolios in recent months.

Both companies are targeting only buyers who plan to live in the homes — rather than non-occupant investors who want to flip or rent them out — as part of a larger neighborhood real estate stabilization effort.

Are there downsides or restrictions for would-be buyers on either HomePath or HomeSteps? Absolutely. Top of the list: Keep in mind that these are foreclosed properties and some of them have been abused by previous occupants. Fannie and Freddie both do repairs to bring houses up to what they believe are marketable standards, but don’t be surprised to find that they are not in pristine condition.

Second, though foreclosures do generally sell for less than non-distressed houses, don’t assume that the listing prices are deep-discount giveaways. Be diligent in comparing prices and values before bidding and negotiating — just as you would with any other real estate purchase.

Contact Washington Post Writers Group columnist Ken Harney at kenharney@earthlink.net

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