Why would this wholesaler be pitching me unlisted REO's?

[Kevin Fox]

I'm just curious what this guys angle is. Lets call him Joe. Over the past few weeks  he has sent 5 'deals he has" via text with photos.   I checked public records and 3 of them are owned by Chase and 2 by Fannie Mae.

One of them we toured, the previous owner is finally moving out after holding out for about a year

after the auction.  I could tell that Joe has corresponded with this guy for a while, perhaps since preforeclosure.

So Joe is offering the house to me for about 10-15k more than my ARV estimate. How can he possibly be offering this house for sale. No equitable interest as far as I know. Perhaps he had a contract during preforeclosure and that's his alibi? 1 other house he gave me the combo lockbox code and I toured myself. It was obvious that some new repairs were done, but bare minimum. The fact that he already had the lockbox code is what I'm curious about, that was 6 weeks ago and today the house still is not on MLS. If a buyer had given him an offer 6 weeks ago, he would still be stringing that buyer along since the house is still not listed.

So is this guy trying to generate offers that he can present to the agent when the house hits market?

Seems like  a waste of time unless you are tight with the agent and know exactly when the listing will hit the market.  But if this is some viable wholesaling plan, I'm all ears!  Joes wholesaling llc has been around for 20 years, so he's not a beginner.