Commercial Reo's

[Mark D.]

I'm an agent working for a residential REO Broker. I feel that I have missed the boat for listing residential REO's but my Broker has mentioned that there is upcoming opportunity in the Commercial REO business. I have no prior experience on the commercial side but am interested in learning and getting involved. Any advice or suggestions on what opportunities are ahead, and what actions I should take to get involved in Commercial REO?

[Will Barnard]

Thats not the whole story. There are and will be both multi-family commercial and other commercial (retail, office, industrial) opportunities. The main reason is this: Almost all commercial loans come with 5-10 year balloon payments. As such, 5-10 years ago, underwriting was much different. banks were lending at 8-%-90% LTV's and now are hardly lending at all and when they do, at LTV's below 65%. As such, the properties financed before at higher LTV's are now not qualified for refi's even if the property value remained exactly the same, which we all know they went down, not up or even.
This has created a huge number of NPN's for commercial loans and many will go to foreclosure. This opens the door for cash investors to steal properties for pennies on the dollar.

So, as an agent, I would recommend you follow up on such an opportunity being presented to you and go after your certifications for commercail RE licensing now.