All About Bulk REO Investments

With more foreclosures now than ever before, America’s weak real estate market seems to set new dismal records each month. Yet as always, this challenge has given rise to a huge new opportunity for alert real estate investors.

The real estate investing strategy du jour is called ‘Bulk REO Investing‘ and is a real monster.

Let’s take a moment to analyze the basics of this incredibly lucrative business.

To understand Bulk REO investing is to understand the foreclosure process.

A home owner who misses one or more mortgage payments is faced with an ever-increasing volume of threatening correspondence from their lender. After a certain period, the lender will then formally begin foreclosure proceedings. ‘Pre foreclosure’ is the name given to the time between implementation of the foreclosure proceedings and the public auction.

Foreclosure is completed when the property is put up for auction. The lender regains ownership of the property if there are no buyers at auction. The designation of ‘REO’ (Real Estate Owned) is then attached to the foreclosed property.

REO properties are usually listed for sale with local real estate agents. However, REO properties are now frequently sold for far less than their ‘book value’. This happens because the buyer of the REO is required to purchase multiple REO’s in a single transaction.

There is huge profit potential in these REO packages for qualified real estate investors. REO packages are easiest to buy and sell with a well regarded source of financing in place. Some sources of funding for these transactions are: personal funds, hard money lenders, commercial lenders and non-conventional sources such as private investors and hedge funds. Additionally, one man is becoming very well known in the field of bulk REO investing, and his name is Sal Buscemi of Dandrew Capital Partners, a hedge fund in New York.