Bulk REO Investing 101
No generation in American history has ever experienced the number of foreclosures and defaulted mortgages as is happening now. But smart real estate investors are turning these ‘lemons’ into ‘lemonade’ in an incredibly profitable new way.
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.
Understanding the notion of Bulk REO’s requires understanding of the foreclosure process.
As a home owner misses a payment or two, the lender sends the predictable barage of threatening letters and warnings. 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.
Foreclosure is completed when the property is put up for auction. Ownership of the property is returned to the lender if the property is not sold at auction. 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, lenders are increasingly willing to take much less than their REO asset is actually worth. The trade-off is that the buyer must purchase multiple REO properties in each transaction.
These REO packages represent the potential to acquire huge amounts of equity for savvy real estate investors. 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 Salvatore Buscemi of Dandrew Capital Partners, a New-York based hedge fund.
