With more foreclosures now than ever before, America’s weak real estate market seems to set new dismal records each month. 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.

You can’t understand Bulk REO Investments without understanding the process of foreclosure.

When a home owner begins to miss payments on their mortgage, the lender begins to send late/overdue notices to the home owner. 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 there are no buyers at the foreclosure auction, the lender regains title to the property. The property then receives the designation of being an ‘REO’ or the more formal name, ‘Real Estate Owned’.

Typically, lenders list their REO properties with local real estate agents in hopes of selling the property to a retail buyer who will pay full price. However, lenders are increasingly willing to take much less than their REO asset is actually worth. This happens because the buyer of the REO is required to purchase multiple REO’s in a single transaction.

Qualified real estate investors are increasingly finding once-in-a-lifetime opportunities in these REO packages. REO packages are easiest to buy and sell with a well regarded source of financing in place. 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 Capital Partners, a hedge fund in New York.

Be Sociable, Share!

•