Basics in Bulk REO Investing

There are more foreclosures in the United States right now than we have ever experienced before. But challenge always gives rise to opportunity, and opportunistic real estate investors are rising to the challenge.

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. The formal process of foreclosure begins at the lender’s discretion. From that time through public auction is called ‘preforeclosure’.

The defaulted property is ultimately auctioned, thus completing the foreclosure process. If there are no buyers for the property at auction, the property is returned to the lender. Such a property is then classified as an ‘REO’ (Real Estate Owned) by the lender.

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. Yet with increasing frequency, REO properties are being sold for pennies or dimes on the dollar. But the price of receiving such great pricing is the need to purchase multiple REO properties (a ‘package’) rather than individual properties.

There is huge profit potential in these REO packages for qualified real estate investors. The most successful Bulk REO Investors will have a well-respected source of funding for their transactions. 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 Buscemi of Dandrew Capital Partners, a hedge fund in New York.