The weakness of the U.S. economy has given rise to the largest epidemic of foreclosures in American history. Yet as always, this challenge has given rise to a huge new opportunity for alert real estate investors.

The new opportunity is known as ‘Bulk REO Investing’ or ‘REO Package Investing’ and it’s a huge opportunity.

Foreclosures are at the heart of the Bulk REO business, so let’s consider the foreclosure process.

To understand investing in Bulk REO, you have to understand the foreclosure process.

As a borrower becomes increasingly behind in his mortgage, the lender regularly calls and writes the borrower with default warnings and threats. 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 property is put up for auction. If there are no buyers for the property at auction, the property is returned to the lender. The property then receives the designation of being an ‘REO’ or the more formal name, ‘Real Estate Owned’.

Lenders usually try to unload their REO properties at close to retail price by listing their REO’s with a real estate broker. But more and more, lenders are selling their REO properties for a greatly reduced price. However, the purchase of a ‘package’ (or group) or REO properties is the trade-off for receiving such great prices.

Qualified real estate investors are increasingly finding once-in-a-lifetime opportunities in these REO packages. 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 Sal Buscemi of Dandrew Capital Partners, a New-York based hedge fund.

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