REO Property Research
12. Jan, 2010 
4 Comments
Sometimes it seems like being a real estate investor means being a master researcher. If I had a penny for every minute I’ve spent researching properties, building buyers lists, finding new lenders and doing due diligence online I’d have… a LOT of pennies.
I’ve been using a method in my REO property research to kill two big birds with one online stone: find portfolio lenders (community banks and credit unions) and get access to bulk REO. Two very cool and profitable uses of my research time.
In fact, from this one free website I can see who’s lending,who’s selling REO property, who’s buying REO property and who’s selling and buying performing and non-performing notes!
It involves the FDIC website. Here’s how you do it.
Go to http://www2.fdic.gov/idasp/index.asp
To Find Portfolio Lenders Who Are Lending
http://www2.fdic.gov/idasp/main.asp
- Enter State (look for lenders in the same state as the property)
- Asset Concentration Hierarchy = Mortgage Lending Specialization
When I do this for Colorado, I get 29 lenders. Then just click on the bank name link to get address, website and to see a list of their assets and liabilities. Which brings us to…
Do These Lenders Have REO Property?
Follow the same steps outlined above. Once you are on the lender page, you are also on their “Information Gateway.” The default drop down will say “Assets and Liabilities. Just click the Generate Report button and you can see “Other Real Estate Owned.” It will even break it down by property type for you!
And you can see how many loans they have 30, 60 and 90 days past due from the Past Due and Non-Accrual Assets link.
What’s the FDIC Selling?
Yes, the FDIC has asset sales, too!
http://www.fdic.gov/buying/index.html
This page will show you loans, real estate and servicing rights that are for sale by the FDIC. You’ll see instructions on how to register and bid on the real estate and loan portfolios they have for sale.
Who’s Buying?
One of the ways I use this site is to find buyers of bulk REO property or note pools that I can broker. This link will give you historical info on past sales of real estate and note portfolios that have closed!
http://www.fdic.gov/buying/historical/index.html
Ideally what I’d like to see is a list by property type (which it has) that includes city, zip code and buyer info. As it stands it’s not that complete but with a little help from Google, I can usually track down the buyer info using Google maps and the County Tax Assessor website. You’ll be able to see who exactly is buying properties in any area.
If you’re into note buying, you can see who’s buying big pools of loans here:
http://www.fdic.gov/buying/historical/structured/index.html
You can even see the documents related to the sale including the purchase agreements. Pretty cool.
It bugs me that the loans sales show you the winning bidder info but the real estate sales do not. Oh, well. It’s free. And darn comprehensive if you ask me.
So, if you’re looking for new ways to get access to lenders, REO property and potential buyers, get to the FDIC site ASAP!
Susan,
Thanks for all your pointers. I’m pretty new in this community. I read one of your old posting about distressed apartments. Do you recommend anywhere to search for these distressed properties (short sales, pre foreclosures)?
Pre foreclosures can be part of any NOD list from a list broker or public records.
Hi Susan,
I am new here too, but thought that I could maybe help you. My company uses Go Homing to search for local foreclosures and bank owned properties. I hope it can help you.
Susan,
Your the lady I listen to.
follow me on twitter let me be
your voice to the public.
S. Lee Simmons, J.D.