Once upon a time in a land that was not so very far away there lived a house. The house was neither old nor new. It wasn’t a tiny house, but it wasn’t a palatial mansion either. The truth is the house was quite cute, but a bit neglected. His foundation was solid but his trim was worn and in need of paint. The carpet in his formal living room was worn and had an ink stain. Worst of all, his kitchen floor was covered with linoleum that was old and yellowing. 
He shuddered to think what people thought as they walked through his rooms. Were they able to see beyond his worn surfaces to see that he was structurally sound? Would they dismiss him because of the broken window on his second floor? Would anyone recognize his true value?
One day a family arrived and looked at the house with tender eyes. The mother saw where the vegetable garden once was and instead of concentrating on the dead weeds that covered the ground she envisioned the garden restored and providing fresh produce to her family. The father noticed the linoleum in the kitchen but in its place he pictured wide planked floors in deep cherry along with resurfaced kitchen cabinets. The children scurried across the worn carpet and imagined finding presents under the Christmas tree and stockings hung by the fireplace. The family looked at the house and saw its worth. The family bought the home and made it their own, applying loving touches here and there until the house was clearly cared for and cherished. They all lived happily ever after. Buying REO property doesn’t have to be a fairy tale. If you would like to view the REO properties currently for sale in the Metro NY, Long Island areas please call Island Advantage Realty, LLC. We are experts in the field of REO properties.
The advice and tips offered in this blog are intended to be solely informational and do not apply in all circumstances. Make sure that you consult a real estate professional, financial consultant, attorney or accountant before taking any action. For further information or questions please contact Gabriella@IARNY.com
Island Advantage Realty, LLC specializes in Foreclosures and Bank Owned properties in the Metro NY and Long Island Areas. They are dedicated to educating home buyers about the home buying process in the Foreclosure and REO markets.
I enjoy working in the REO market. I love being able to help families buy affordable homes. I also love the creative people who buy REO properties and renovate and restore them. REO properties are ripe with potential. They offer a home buyer the ability to buy an affordable home and have the ability to create a distinctive and unique home.
There is nothing I enjoy more than see home owner’s faces shine with ideas for how they will make a space uniquely there own. 
Are you ready to view REO property? It’s important to have the right mindset when shopping for REO property. When you view properties that have been through foreclosure you need to be able to view them with an eye that is trained to distinguish between neglect and damage. 
By the time a property becomes REO it has frequently sat empty for a period of time, sometimes even months. Houses don’t like to be empty and they tend to show signs of neglect fairly quickly. The thing about most neglect issues is that they are easily rectified and often for very little money.
It is an unfortunate reality in our current economy, but there are a large number of people w ho need to rent affordable housing.
If you’re willing to investigate the REO housing market you will find that it’s chock full of exciting opportunities. It largely depends on how you choose to look at things. I’m a big fan of making the most of any opportunity, and I enjoy working with like minded people. 
This particular property had a unique problem, the front porch was unusable. That might be putting it mildly. After a bad ice storm a delivery truck had spun out of control and sheared the front porch almost completely off, but it was still hanging there with yellow police tape surrounding it. Not exactly a great selling point, right? Except it was! The couple had looked everywhere for a property with a large old fashioned porch suitable for sipping lemonade on long summer nights. And they hadn’t found it, at least not in their price range.
If you had a really good podiatrist would you call him when you were thinking of having surgery on your eye? Certainly not! We respect expertise for what it can do for us; it is the same thing in real estate.
It wasn’t an easy decision to come to and both the husband and the wife were concerned about what kinds of properties would be available to them in their new price range. 
It’s important to realize that today’s REO market is unlike any other at any other time. There are “fixer-uppers” available, there are properties that require extensive remodeling and there are even properties that are essentially move in ready. There are REO homes available in every size, price range and neighborhood imaginable.
Forrest Gump said “Life is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re going to get.” Well I agree that life is like a box of chocolates, but usually a box of chocolates has a “legend” that tells you what the chocolates are – if you are willing to look at it. Sure, I know people who don’t bother looking at the legend, they want to be surprised. 
I like surprises, but I also hate waste. I know if I bite into a chocolate with nougat I’m not going to finish it. I like to look at the legend, that way I get all of the chocolates with coconut or raspberry. Yeah!
There was one movie of a Christmas in 1960 shot by my Aunt Lillian, who was not the greatest camera person. Faces were cut in half and sometimes images flew by in a blur. Still, at one point the entire room erupted in cheers at a momentary shot of an old wing backed chair. Three generations shouted at the memory of a chair in which we had all been rocked to sleep in over a 40 year span. It reminded everyone of “home”. 
NY Foreclosure Report 