There 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 real estate investing strategy du jour is called 'Bulk REO Investing' and is a real monster.
Let's take a moment to analyze the basics of this incredibly lucrative business.
Understanding the notion of Bulk REO's requires understanding of the foreclosure process.
A home owner who misses one or more mortgage payments is faced with an ever-increasing volume of threatening correspondence from their lender. The official foreclosure proceedings begin subsequently, as directed by the lender. 'Pre foreclosure' is the name given to the time between implementation of the foreclosure proceedings and the public auction.
When a defaulted property is placed up for auction, the foreclosure process is completed. If there are no buyers for the property at auction, the property is returned to the lender. The designation of 'REO' (Real Estate Owned) is then attached to the foreclosed property.
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. But as a consequence of the weak economy, lenders are frequently selling their REO properties far below their actual value. 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 Salvatore Bushemi of Dandrew Capital Partners, a New-York based hedge fund.
