Reo's are still around

I get a lot of traffice on my website http://www.reori.com/. This tells me that many people are still searching for REO's in Rhode Island.
I have a few REO listings right now, one is a HUD home...You can go straight to http://www.hudhomestore.com/ and search all the HUD homes across the country. You will need a HUD Broker to bid and you can search for one right on the site.
Bank of America has recently dropped their hold on Bank owned properties, so I know we will be seeing quite a few of those here in RI.
Short Sales have been the general push lately. For those who do not know what a Short Sale is, a quick explanation is that if you are "upside down" in your home, meaning you can no longer afford to pay your mortgage due to illness, loss of job, etc, and you are expecting to be foreclosed upon, you might want to put your home on the market at a Short Sale.  What this does is brings in a buyer and you can then ask the bank to accept a lower amount on what is owed. These can be great deals for buyers willing to wait and for Sellers, it gives an opportunity to avoid an actual foreclosure.
A good Realtor and a good Attorney will guide you through this very upsetting and difficult time.

So why aren't short sales considered REO's. REO is short for Real Estate Owned and is used mostly by banks that have foreclosed and now own a property due to unpaid mortgage.
A short sale is still legally owned by the Seller, you!  Yet, if you are behind in your payments and have no way of paying the full mortgage, then the Bank will have the final decision on what they will take for a price.

This may explain why you will see homes on the market for incredibly low prices!  Some Realtors will put the lisiting out there very low to attract buyers, however, the bank is still the deciding factor, and in most cases are not going to take an offer that is much below appraisal.  

Always remember, unless you are paying cash, your bank is going to want to appraise a home before they hand over the money, so the home you are interested in needs to be a fair market value.

Rhode Island's latest market in Real Estate

In the first quarter of 2011, the market has continued to waver. The bank owned homes that once flooded the market are now far less than the Short Sales. If you don't know what a short sale is, let me explain.

When someone is either already behind on their mortgage or about to get behind, due to personal problems, ie sickness, hospitalization, loss of employment, etc. then the bank that owns the mortgage is going to start looking to foreclose. The home owners credit is going to slide, hugely.

By selling his/her home at short sale, it means they are hoping that the bank will take a lesser amount than is owed on the mortgage.

This does not mean the homeowner will NOT still have bad credit, but it (in many cases) will be a shorter time to wait to be able to buy a home again.

There are loads of short sales on the market, and they tend to take a long time to close, sometimes with the banks foreclosing anyway, however, some of these short sales are excellent buys if you have the time.

It won't be this way forever. Summer of 2011 will probably bring a few more foreclosures, but the circle will continue and eventually, the price of homes are going to start creeping back up, along with the interest rate.