For the first time in history, we’ve just passed a six year mark for household formations by renters outpacing home buyers. For six years in a row, more rental households have been formed than purchased homes. One estimate is that purchase applications are now the same as they were approximately 20 years ago.
It’s certainly not news that 30% or more of all purchases for several years have been by cash investors. When Blackstone Group jumped into the fray, tens of thousands of homes were purchased for cash and placed into service as rental properties. Other large investment firms have followed suit. Small investors have been big buyers as well.

Sean O'Toole has purchased upward of 150 investment homes at courthouse auctions, or trustee auctions. They aren't for the fainthearted, he says.

"These take a more sophisticated effort (than the larger auctions)," says O'Toole, founder and chief executive of ForeclosureRadar.com, a foreclosure service for real-estate professionals. "They are a different animal. Five guys standing around a courthouse with a million dollars in checks in their pockets -- that can be bizarre and a little intimidating."

The "notice of trustee sale," sometimes called a "sheriff's sale," will be published in a newspaper of record once a week for at least three weeks prior to the sale date. You need to do your homework before attending, O'Toole says.
What's your home worth?

Our last flip went perfect, a 70% LTV and we made a nice annualized return (tip #5). It was in a suburb just outside of a great rental area and before you get to the nicer suburbs. We categorize this as a high end blue collar area (tip #1) which are perfect for flips and/or rentals. REO sales are in the 30s with retail sale ranging from 80-130K which shows a huge discount for REOs (tip #2). The best part is there was only 1 for sale property in the neighborhood compared to 4 sold comps (tip #3) and there was definite pride of ownership with few rentals (tip #4).

5 Tips for Where to Flip:

Jill & I just locked up another REO, this Fannie Mae property is a 2 bed/2 bath/1 car garage with about 1500 sq. ft. of living area. It was listed at 44,900 & we went in at 28K; they came back at 41,900; so countered at 32K, they dropped to 40K; we went to 36,250 & they dropped a big $100 down to 39,900. So we went up $100 also & they accepted $ 36,350.
We were emailed instructions to wire transfer the EMD ... after reviewing it I noticed it was for a different property, no one in the RE office or the law firm checked it. I'm glad I found it because if I didn't our deposit would have been floating in limbo.
We figure we need to spend about 10K in materials
for the remodel & should be able to sell for 65K to 69K. A very nice return!