Bulk REO Investments - The Basics
November 18th, 2009There are more foreclosures in the United States right now than we have ever experienced before. But smart real estate investors are turning these ‘lemons’ into ‘lemonade’ in an incredibly profitable new way.
The new opportunity is known as ‘Bulk REO Investing’ or ‘REO Package Investing’ and it’s a huge opportunity.
Let’s take a moment to analyze the basics of this incredibly lucrative business.
To understand Bulk REO investing is to understand the foreclosure process.
As a home owner misses a payment or two, the lender sends the predictable barage of threatening letters and warnings. After a certain period, the lender will then formally begin foreclosure proceedings. Between the formal beginning of the foreclosure process and the public auction is the ‘preforeclosure’ period.
The defaulted property is ultimately auctioned, thus completing the foreclosure process. If the property is not purchased at auction, ownership reverts to the original lender. The designation of ‘REO’ (Real Estate Owned) is then attached to the foreclosed property.
Lenders usually try to unload their REO properties at close to retail price by listing their REO’s with a real estate broker. However, REO properties are now frequently sold for far less than their ‘book value’. The trade-off is that the buyer must purchase multiple REO properties in each transaction.
The REO investment packages available today have provided a way to profitably capitalize on the U.S. recession. 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 Sal Bushemi of Dandrew Partners, a hedge fund in New York.