How To Become A Bulk REO Investor

Nov 29 2009

By John Henderson

The weakness of the U.S. economy has given rise to the largest epidemic of foreclosures in American history. But smart real estate investors are turning these ‘lemons’ into ‘lemonade’ in an incredibly profitable new way.

That opportunity is called Bulk REO Investing, and the opportunity is huge.

Let’s take a moment to analyze the basics of this incredibly lucrative business.

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

A home owner who misses one or more mortgage payments is faced with an ever-increasing volume of threatening correspondence from their lender. Following a period of time determined by the lender, formal foreclosure proceedings begin. From that time through public auction is called ‘preforeclosure’.

Foreclosure is completed when the defaulted property is auctioned. If there are no buyers for the property at auction, the property is returned to the lender. This property is then considered to be ‘Real Estate Owned’ by the lender, also known as an ‘REO’ property.

REO properties are usually listed for sale with local real estate agents. Yet with increasing frequency, REO properties are being sold for pennies or dimes on the dollar. However, the purchase of a ‘package’ (or group) or REO properties is the trade-off for receiving such great prices.

The recession in the United States has yielded huge profits to real estate investors prepared to take advantage. 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 Sal Bushemi of Dandrew Partners, a hedge fund in New York.