Question: The listing information says this is an REO property. Does that make me ineligible to purchase it?
Answer: REO stands for Real Estate Owned (by the bank). It is another way of saying bank owned foreclosure.
We have 3 stages of foreclosure real estate.
1. Pre-foreclosure; The owners are in usually in default or struggling to keep up their payments. They need to sell their property or face a foreclosure. Often their lender has already started the legal foreclosure process, but the foreclosure has not been completed. In South Carolina, pre-foreclosure could last from 3 months to a year or more.
Pre-foreclosure properties may be listed as “Potential Short Sale” or a “Lender Approved Short Sale” when the owner does not have any equity in the property.
2. Public auction; The public auction is where the foreclosure is finalized. The property is offered for sale to the highest bidder at the county courthouse. Once a property has gone through the auction it is “foreclosed”.
3. REO; This is property that has been taken back by the bank due to low or no bids at the auction. The bank or lender now owns the foreclosed property so it is now “real estate owned” by the bank as opposed to just holding the mortgage. All of the Myrtle Beach Foreclosures listed by our MLS are banked owned, REO, foreclosures. Generally there are no eligibility requirements to buy an REO though some federal agency foreclosures, like Fannie Mae, may only accept offers from primary owners during the first 2 weeks of the listing.
REO listings may be designated as “Deed Recorded” or “Deed Not Recorded” foreclosures. If the listing indicates that the deed is not recorded it may take longer to close as the lender (the owner) works out an titling issues with the local registrar of deeds. If the listing is listed as “Deed Recorded”, the title has been filed and accepted by the local Registrar of Deeds and the property can be transferred much sooner