No generation in American history has ever experienced the number of foreclosures and defaulted mortgages as is happening now. Yet as always, this challenge has given rise to a huge new opportunity for alert real estate investors.
‘Bulk REO Investing’ is the name of the new strategy, and it’s captured the attention of many well-heeled investors.
Consider with me, if you will, the fundamentals of the Bulk REO business.
Understanding of the foreclosure process is central to understanding Bulk REO investing.
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. Between the formal beginning of the foreclosure process and the public auction is the ‘preforeclosure’ period.
When a defaulted property is placed up for auction, the foreclosure process is completed. Ownership of the property is returned to the lender if the property is not sold at auction. The lender then categorizes the property as ‘Real Estate Owned’ - or ‘REO’ for short.
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.
The recession in the United States has yielded huge profits to real estate investors prepared to take advantage. 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 Sal Buscemi of Dandrew Capital Partners, a New-York based hedge fund.