With more foreclosures now than ever before, America’s weak real estate market seems to set new dismal records each month. But challenge always gives rise to opportunity, and opportunistic real estate investors are rising to the challenge.

‘Bulk REO Investing’ is the name of the new strategy, and it’s captured the attention of many well-heeled investors.

The basis of the Bulk REO business is foreclosures, so let’s analyze the foreclosure process now.

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 lender directs the subsequent timing of the actual foreclosure proceedings. The ‘pre-foreclosure’ time starts with filing of foreclosure paperwork and concludes at public auction.

To complete the foreclosure process, the property is auction to the public. If the property is not purchased at auction, ownership reverts to the original lender. The designation of ‘REO’ (Real Estate Owned) is then attached to the foreclosed property.

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. But more and more, lenders are selling their REO properties for a greatly reduced price. This happens because the buyer of the REO is required to purchase multiple REO’s in a single transaction.

These REO packages represent the potential to acquire huge amounts of equity for savvy real estate investors. REO packages are easiest to buy and sell with a well regarded source of financing in place. 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 Bushemi of Dandrew Capital Partners, a New-York based hedge fund.