There are more foreclosures in the United States right now than we have ever experienced before. However, opportunistic real estate investment professionals are turning the recession into great profits with a bit of creativity.

This new opportunity – known as ‘Bulk REO Investing’ – is so huge it’s captured attention from wealthy investors and private investment funds alike.

Consider with me, if you will, the fundamentals of the Bulk REO business.

Understanding the notion of Bulk REO’s requires understanding of the foreclosure process.

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. ‘Pre foreclosure’ is the name given to the time between implementation of the foreclosure proceedings and the public auction.

When a defaulted property is placed up for auction, the foreclosure process is completed. The lender regains ownership of the property if there are no buyers at auction. Such a property is then classified as an ‘REO’ (Real Estate Owned) by the lender.

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.

These REO packages represent the potential to acquire huge amounts of equity for savvy real estate investors. Bulk REO Investors are most successful when they have a well-established source of funding for their REO packages. 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. One excellent source of funding for Bulk REO Investment transactions can be found here: Bulk REO Investment Training.