Getting in touch with bank reo asset managers

[Devon Harris]

Hello there!

I’m very new to the real estate investing space and am excited to start my adventure!

There’s a property nearby me, that when I wast starting to look for a place out of college was on the market briefly. I assumed it sold and someone bought it, but it was pretty decent older bungalow home that needed some updating.

Fast forward two+ years and I’m now looking to purchase a deal (albeit in a tough market) to either fix and flip or fix and rent pulling out some equity to rinse and repeat. I’m a runner, and I frequent this area now I’ve bought a house recently and my route runs nearby that old listing. I’ve noticed it’s overgrown and seemingly uninhabited, the only thing that gets cared for is the lawn mowed every 1-2 weeks.

Looking at local property records, a bank owns it since June 2019. Which the property came on the market last in January 2019 and exited two weeks later in the same month. A name search says that possibly the old owner passed and this appears to maybe have been a rental property leading up to that in my eye. I could be wrong.

Anyways, I tried calling the branch office that it is addressed to on the records and once speaking to the manager… she said all that she can do it tell me to contact a real estate agent. Claiming she has no department to contact in terms of reo or asset management. The bank is overseas based and their websites are no help. Even though the property is not listed… I’m at a loss and at the right price this could be a stellar first property. Any ideas where else to poke? I’ve done a property record search, but am hesitant whether these documents will really help me or not. And it costs money to obtain them from the online system. Thanks  for any pointers, in advance!