No generation in American history has ever experienced the number of foreclosures and defaulted mortgages as is happening now. However, opportunistic real estate investment professionals are turning the recession into great profits with a bit of creativity.
This new opportunity – known as ‘Bulk REO Investing’ – is so huge it’s captured attention from wealthy investors and private investment funds alike.
The basis of the Bulk REO business is foreclosures, so let’s analyze the foreclosure process now.
Understanding the notion of Bulk REO’s requires understanding of the foreclosure process.
As a home owner misses a payment or two, the lender sends the predictable barage of threatening letters and warnings. Following a period of time determined by the lender, formal foreclosure proceedings begin. Between the formal beginning of the foreclosure process and the public auction is the ‘preforeclosure’ period.
Foreclosure is completed when the property is put up for auction. Ownership of the property is returned to the lender if the property is not sold at auction. The property then receives the designation of being an ‘REO’ or the more formal name, ‘Real Estate Owned’.
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. Yet with increasing frequency, REO properties are being sold for pennies or dimes on the dollar. However, the purchase of a ‘package’ (or group) or REO properties is the trade-off for receiving such great prices.
There is huge profit potential in these REO packages for qualified real estate investors. Bulk REO Investors are most successful when they have a well-established source of funding for their REO packages. 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 Bushemi of Dandrew Capital Partners, a New-York based hedge fund.
