With more foreclosures now than ever before, America’s weak real estate market seems to set new dismal records each month. But smart real estate investors are turning these ‘lemons’ into ‘lemonade’ in an incredibly profitable new way.
This new opportunity – known as ‘Bulk REO Investing’ – is so huge it’s captured attention from wealthy investors and private investment funds alike.
Foreclosures are at the heart of the Bulk REO business, so let’s consider the foreclosure process.
To understand Bulk REO investing is to understand the foreclosure process.
As a borrower becomes increasingly behind in his mortgage, the lender regularly calls and writes the borrower with default warnings and threats. The lender directs the subsequent timing of the actual foreclosure proceedings. The name for this period is ‘preforeclosure’.
To complete the foreclosure process, the property is auction to the public. The lender regains ownership of the property if there are no buyers at auction. The lender then categorizes the property as ‘Real Estate Owned’ – or ‘REO’ for short.
REO properties are usually listed for sale with local real estate agents. 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.
These REO packages represent the potential to acquire huge amounts of equity for savvy real estate investors. The most successful Bulk REO Investors will have a well-respected source of funding for their transactions. 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 New-York based hedge fund.
