With more foreclosures now than ever before, America’s weak real estate market seems to set new dismal records each month. But challenge always gives rise to opportunity, and opportunistic real estate investors are rising to the challenge.
That opportunity is called Bulk REO Investing, and the opportunity is huge.
The basis of the Bulk REO business is foreclosures, so let’s analyze the foreclosure process now.
Understanding of the foreclosure process is central to understanding Bulk REO investing.
A home owner who misses one or more mortgage payments is faced with an ever-increasing volume of threatening correspondence from their lender. The formal process of foreclosure begins at the lender’s discretion. The ‘pre-foreclosure’ time starts with filing of foreclosure paperwork and concludes at public auction.
The defaulted property is ultimately auctioned, thus completing the foreclosure process. Ownership of the property is returned to the lender if the property is not sold at auction. The lender then categorizes the property as ‘Real Estate Owned’ - or ‘REO’ for short.
Lenders have no interest in owning property, and thus usually opt to list their REO properties with a local real estate broker in hopes of a retail sale. But more and more, lenders are selling their REO properties for a greatly reduced price. However, the purchase of a ‘package’ (or group) or REO properties is the trade-off for receiving such great prices.
The REO investment packages available today have provided a way to profitably capitalize on the U.S. recession. 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 Salvatore Buscemi of Dandrew Capital Partners, a hedge fund in New York.
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