Real Estate Owned (REO) is a type of property that is owned by a lender. After a home is foreclosed on by the lender, the house is put up for auction. If the house does not sell at the auction, the lender takes possession of the house and attempts to sell the property as an REO.

The asking price for these properties is based on the outstanding loan amount plus attorneys’ fees and costs, but are generally well below market value. Although the prices may seem good, many REOs are in poor condition and in need of repair. Some degree of due diligence (research) must be performed as to limit the amount of risk. REOs are only a good deal if you can purchase and repair the property and still come out well below the market value.

To help you get started, I’ve included a list of links to quite a few lender’s REO websites.

Contrywide Home Loans
CitiMortgage (CitiBank)
Bank of America
Wells Fargo
GMAC
IndyMac
Chase Mortgage
BB&T
Downey Savings
HSBC
Homeg Servicing
Ocwen Financial
American Tax Funding
National Bank of Arizona
Beal Bank
Unity Bank

Washington Mutual and Wachovia do not list their REO properties on the internet.