How To Find The Hottest REO Listings in Your Areas

REO Listings Are Hot Right NOW!
Since the economic downturn, the lure of REO Properties have resonated with both home buyers and investors alike and many buyers are starting to seek out REO Listings to make their legwork a little easier.

Incredibly, depending on your locality, you can find Bank Owned Properties at fifty to eighty percent below FMV Fair Market Value.

They key is to get in while the getting is G-R-E-A-T! Never before have banks and lenders been more willing to cut such incredible deals with properties they have foreclosed on than now!

What is a REO Property? 
An REO property is a property in which a bank or lender has taken legal possession of through the foreclosure process. When a home goes into foreclosure and no one picks it up at the auction, the ownership transfers from the homeowner to lender and the property is then classified as a Bank REO Property.

Typically at the point, the bank may have to evict the homeowner and do some repairs to bring the home up to move in condition. If there are any other liens on the property such as a 2nd mortgage or tax liens, the lender will negotiate to have those removed. Once all of the above issues have been cleared up, the bank will put the property up for sale and it will join the other available REO listings.

Here’s my caveat; not all bank owned properties are great deals! Sometimes the banks miscalculate the numbers or otherwise fail to take into consideration variables that will negatively impact what the market is willing to pay. Make sure that you have a streamline system for detecting and filtering out those bank owned properties that are unprofitable for you.

It is important to note that banks start entering into a danger zone with the FDIC when their balance sheets show they are not meeting the debt to asset ratios established by the FDIC. This is beneficial news to you because banks are really in a position that they MUST negotiate. The times are gone when they could sit on bank owned properties until the right offer came along. Having shared that, let’s take a look at the best sources to find REO listings.

Craigslist REO Listings
Believe it or not, Craigslist, the free online advertiser, is a great place to find REO listings galore! You will find all kinds of deals on Craigslist because its free to advertise. Just click on the “real estate for sale” section and in the “search for:” box at the top of the page, type “REO” and click on the search button.

You will be pleasantly surprised at the number of deals you’ll find. To a lesser degree, you can also try other online advertising websites such as Backpage.com, Kijiji.com and any other local advertisers you may be aware of.

Newspaper REO Listings
The old-fashion newspapers (remember the paper routes?) are still a good source of REO listings because some banks haven’t yet caught up with the twentieth century method of advertising. You can usually find deals in the Sunday edition. In addition, your local newspapers and local real estate websites will also carry an abundance of REO listings.

Realtors REO Listings
Realtors can be a source, but be weary in dealing with realtors (and I have may realtor friends who know my position) unless they have demonstrated they will push and succeed at getting you phenomenal deals.

Most realtors who deal in bank owned properties are pressing to sell the property at the highest possible price because they get paid by commission and the higher the sell the property for the more money they make. There are agents who are the exception, but they are far and few in between.

Subscription Service REO Listings
Another excellent place to grab up REO listings is from one of the various foreclosure services that offer these lists for a monthly subscription. The quality of the information will vary from service to service so the best way to determine who has what you’re looking for is to sign up for the trial period and make your decision based on your findings.

Author, Joel Marks of REODr.com