The weakness of the U.S. economy has given rise to the largest epidemic of foreclosures in American history. Yet as always, this challenge has given rise to a huge new opportunity for alert real estate investors.

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.

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. After a certain period, the lender will then formally begin 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 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’. But the price of receiving such great pricing is the need to purchase multiple REO properties (a ‘package’) rather than individual properties.

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. There are many sources of funding for these transasactions including: hard money and commercial financing, as well as non conventional sources such as hedge funds and private investors. Additionally, one man is becoming very well known in the field of bulk REO investing, and his name is Sal Bushemi of Dandrew Partners, a hedge fund in New York.




Tagged with: • • • • • • • • •

Filed under: Real Estate

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!