What is a bank owned or REO property?
Bank owned property; also called REO “Real Estate Owned” property is property that is owned by the lender. Properties that are owned by the bank have been repossessed by the bank/lender either through a foreclosure auction or deed in lieu of foreclosure which occurs when the owner in default transfers ownership directly to the bank. Buying foreclosed property owned by the bank is the most straightforward way to buy a foreclosure. The buyer does not have to deal with the owner of the foreclosed property as in a pre-foreclosure, and does not have to deal with bidding and producing large amounts of cash upfront as in a foreclosure auction. When buying a bank owned property, the bank/lender is usually very motivated to sell the property quickly being that holding real estate is not the business in which most banks desire to participate in.
