With more foreclosures now than ever before, America’s weak real estate market seems to set new dismal records each month. Yet well-funded investors in real estate are seizing upon this opening to profit from an profoundly profitable new opportunity.
‘Bulk REO Investing’ is the name of the new strategy, and it’s captured the attention of many well-heeled investors.
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.
Mortgage lenders faced with a non-paying home owner send a large volume of threats, warnings and documentation to the borrower who is late. After a certain period, the lender will then formally begin foreclosure proceedings. From that time through public auction is called ‘preforeclosure’.
Foreclosure is completed when the property is put up for auction. If the property is not purchased at auction, ownership reverts to the original lender. 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. However, REO properties are now frequently sold for far less than their ‘book value’. But the price of receiving such great pricing is the need to purchase multiple REO properties (a ‘package’) rather than individual properties.
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. There are many sources of funding for these transasactions including: hard money and commercial financing, as well as non conventional sources such as hedge funds and private investors. 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.