buying a home from a distance

Think Outside The Box: Have You Thought About Buying A REO Home?

14 June 2021

Jeffery Wright

The real estate market is competitive, especially for those who are in the market for single family homes. Depending upon a variety of factors, such as how many single family homes for sale are available in a particular geographic region, buyers like you might find themselves at a disadvantage. But before you give up on your search, you might want to talk to your real estate agent about employing different strategies for finding your perfect property.  For example, why not ask your agent about single family homes that have gone through the foreclosure process and are now classified as REO? REO stands for real estate owned. This means that either a bank or a mortgage lender owns the titles on the house. This happens after the previous owner of the property abandons it due to non-payment. In some instances, this could happen once the previous owner dies, and their beneficiaries don't want to continue to make payments on the property. 

You're buying a fire-sale property

No matter why a house becomes an REO property, banks and mortgage lenders aren't in the real estate business. They're financial lenders, and their bottom line is to generate as much revenue from a bad loan as possible. This is where creative property buyers like you come in. Financial institutions are anxious to unload the properties they've gained ownership of, so they'll go the extra mile to give you a highly favorable deal.

Not only will they give you the most favorable deal on your purchase of these properties, but also, the process tends to move a lot faster than the traditional process of buying single family homes. 

You could move into a desirable area for less money

The 2008 Great Recession proved that there were many previous homeowners who purchased more property than they could afford. This meant that lots of high-end real estate inventory in highly desirable neighborhoods fell into the foreclosure process. While things aren't as dire some years later, there will always be higher-end properties that become REO properties.  What this means for you is this: You could find yourself living in a neighborhood inside of a property that might have been previously out of your reach! Again, the fact that a financial institution has taken possession of the property completely works for buyers like you, because lenders don't want to collect real estate inventory. They want to collect money, and they'll create a highly incentivized deal that makes a purchase worth your while!   

To learn more information about finding single family homes, reach out to a professional near you.

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