That’s exactly what the media wants you to believe. Unfortunately their doing a great job convincing everyday hardworking Americans who are losing their homes that this is the current state of the Real Estate Market all over the United States. The fact of the matter is, real estate investors who understand market cycles are flat out creating wealth. You need to know how to identify cash cow REO deals in your market and capitalize on one of the greatest real estate investing opportunities in the history of United States.

First you must know what is that you are looking for. In most cases we are looking for homes in bread & butter neighborhoods that are 20 years or older. These areas generally consist of a stable rental market with blue collar workers that have lived there for sometime. Some other signs to look for to determine if an area is good for rentals. Is simply to see how many of the homes within a half mile to a mile radiuses are owned by absentee owners. If you don’t know what an absentee owner is, that simply means someone owns a property, but it is not their primary residence.

You also want to check the comparable sales in the area as well as the rental rates to make sure that the houses you are making offers on will be able to have a positive cash flow. You can usually contact a local real estate agent to get this information. If you don’t have access to any realtors leave a comment on my Blog or send me an email and I will send you some great resources for that information. Now that you have identified the rental rates and the value of the property its time to start submitting offers.

Now when it comes to dealing with banks you have one of two choices, A. use a buyers agent to represent you or B. deal directly with the listing agent for the bank. I personally would choose B. and simply put the selling agent will be more motivated to get your offer accepted knowing they get to keep the full commission for themselves and not have to split it with a buying agent. The only caveat with that is they technically do not represent you unless you do a duel agencies agreement which is beyond the scope of this article. Plain and simple use the selling agent to make your offers.

Now when we want buy REO deals from the banks or other wholesalers we do not want to pay no more than 60 cents on the dollar minus the repairs. I generally offer much less than that when negotiating with banks, usually around 45 cents on the dollar minus repairs. You just want to be able to get a dialogue going between you and the bank. Hopefully the selling agent will do their job and try to get your offer accepted, once your offer has been accepted now its time to close deal. In part 2 of this article/post we will discuss how to finance these deals, and even flip REO property. Until then take care, oh by the way their are some links to some other resources on REO and Foreclosure investing check them out and leave any comments or suggestions you may have. Chow!!

P.S. Check out all these nationwide foreclosure listings Click Here!