Foreclosures Still Rising…REO is gonna be BIG this year.

According to a recent report by LPS (Lenders Processing Services), the nation has seen an increase in the number of foreclosures, for the fifth consecutive month. To put that in perspective for you, the number is now 2.2 million mortgages in default, or just over 9% of all home loans in the United States, in some sort of default. Pretty astonishing numbers, from any perspective. It really comes as no surprise, however, as many of us REO brokers and REO agents, over at REORockstars, have been having intense discussions about the coming effects of the apparent “bottleneck” of foreclosure properties, that have been jammed up for some time now. This jam-up is seemingly due to a number of factors, most recently, the foreclosure stoppages initiated by some of the nations biggest banks, as they re-visited improperly “rubber stamped” filings. It all had to show up in the market at some point, and it appears that the floodgates are starting to give way, however slowly, right now. So, what does that mean for aspiring real estate agents, who want to learn how to sell REO homes? Well, it means that you better learn your stuff fast and gear up for a “trial by fire”, so to speak. Talk about the potential of being thrown to the dogs! This year will likely be the tidal wave of all tidal waves in the default industry. With the recent LPS reports and the number of homes in serious default, that haven’t even been classified as “foreclosures” yet, the perfect storm is fast approaching. It is critical that REO agents get the proper REO training they need, in order to not only handle REO assignments, but to also handle a large VOLUME of them. In GA, a recent report showed that more than 7 out of every 10 homes sales, were REO properties. And this report was published PRIOR to these recent foreclosure findings by LPS. Banks are going to NEED more qualified REO agents, to handle this massive inventory. Seek out some good REO training, and be sure that you position yourself as the ONLY choice, the “go to” REO EXPERT, for banks in your market. Learning to handle REO properties, like a pro, could be VERY good for your financial position this year.