No generation in American history has ever experienced the number of foreclosures and defaulted mortgages as is happening now. 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.
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.
When a home owner begins to miss payments on their mortgage, the lender begins to send late/overdue notices to the home owner. The formal process of foreclosure begins at the lender’s discretion. The name for this period is ‘preforeclosure’.
When a defaulted property is placed up for auction, the foreclosure process is completed. Ownership of the property is returned to the lender if the property is not sold at auction. Such a property is then classified as an ‘REO’ (Real Estate Owned) by the lender.
Lenders usually try to unload their REO properties at close to retail price by listing their REO’s with a real estate broker. But more and more, lenders are selling their REO properties for a greatly reduced price. This happens because the buyer of the REO is required to purchase multiple REO’s in a single transaction.
These REO packages represent the potential to acquire huge amounts of equity for savvy real estate investors. One of the best ways to take advantage of Bulk REO Investing opportunities is to partner with a well-regarded source of funding. 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 Partners, a New-York based hedge fund.
