It seems that the state of Florida has the largest shadow inventory of unsold bank owned properties. According to Bob Massey of REWealthCoach.com, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has recently released its shadow inventory estimates. The report shows that the Sunshine State topped the list of places with the highest number of unsold REOs. The states of California and Illinois, on the other hand, followed in second and third places, respectively. What is the primary reason for the growth of shadow inventories in the country? Read Bob’s post to find out.

If you have just started wholesaling houses, which do you think is a better strategy: targeting private sellers or making offers on REOs? Steph Davis of FlipThisWholesaler.net provides an answer to this question in response to an inquiry raised by one her readers. According to her, the answer depends on your market. She says each strategy has its own pros and cons, which is why you have to study your options carefully. Watch Steph’s video and learn valuable tips on wholesaling private properties and bank owned homes.

If you want to invest in real estate, now is a good time to do so. According to Susan Lassiter-Lyons of TheInvestorInsights.com, buying investment properties from today’s market brings tons of benefits for real estate investors. Recent data have shown that home prices have declined in the fourth quarter of 2010 and more households have underwater mortgage. These means investors will have more opportunities to obtain affordable investment properties. Read the rest of Susan’s post to learn more.

Foreclosure activities slowed down in January from a year ago as the number of households that receive default notices fell during the same period. According to Bob Massey of REWealthCoach.com, RealtyTrac statistics have shown that although foreclosure filings climbed by 1% from December 2010 to January, they declined by 17% from last year. He adds that only 75,178 homeowners received default notices last month. The figure was said to be the smallest since July 2007. Read the rest of Bob’s article to learn more.

Because of a huge drop in home values, more and more households are having underwater mortgages. Citing data from Zillow.com, Bob Massey of REWealthCoach.com reveals that the percentage of single-family homes with underwater mortgages jumped from 23.2% to 27% in the fourth quarter of 2010. According to him, a report from Zillow has shown that home values declined by 5.9% during the same period from 2009 and many experts believe that home values will further decline by 5% this year. Check out Bob’s post to read the rest of his story.

As the saying goes, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” This is the reason why it is very important for investors to plan all their moves when investing in real estate. In his latest post, Scott Costello of StrugglingInvestor.com talks about his marketing plans for the week. As you may know, marketing is an integral part of the real estate investing business because without it, it would be difficult for investors to find leads to lucrative deals. Take a look at Scott’s newest blog entry now. You might get great ideas for your own real estate marketing campaigns.

Considering investing in multifamily bank owned homes? If you are, you might want to check out Susan Lassiter-Lyons’ latest post on TheInvestorInsights.com. In her newest blog entry, she provides nifty hints and tips on where to find multifamily reo buildings. She also explains when is the best time to check out HUD’s website for repossessed multifamily homes. Take a look at her post and discover valuable pointers on investing in REOs.

Industry experts have recently predicted that the housing market will be saddled with high foreclosure rates for five more years. According to Bob Massey of REWealthCoach.com, TrimTabs Investment Research and Baker Avenue Asset Management said it would take four to six years before we see a considerable decline in the number of distressed properties. Economists believe that this will significantly affect the full recovery of the housing market. Read the rest of Bob’s most to learn more.

It looks like the highly controversial “robo-signing” scandal is far from over. Citing an article from the “American Banker,” Bob Massey of REWealthCoach.com reveals that some Notice of Default (NOD) filings in several non-judicial states have been “improper.” According to him, the article reported that several bank employees signed NODs without even verifying if there was indeed a default. Check out Bob’s post to learn more about this story.

According to latest data from RealtyTRac, foreclosures jumped in 72% of metro areas in the U.S. last year. However, Cory Boatright of ShortSaleFundamentals.com says that despite the sizable increase, the rate of foreclosures in the ten worst-hit areas actually went down. This probably means that there are only a handful of people left to foreclose on, he adds. Take a look at Cory’s blog entry to read the rest of his article.

If you’re having a hard time getting your offers on REOs accepted, Mike Jacka has valuable information that you might find very useful. In his latest post on MikeJacka.com, he shares some tips that will end your frustrations whenever you’re making an offer to buy bank owned homes. Check out Mike’s newest blog entry and discover how you can improve the odds of getting your offers accepted.

Did you know that a bulk of foreclosures in the U.S. came from only five states? Citing data from Canadian rating service DBRS, Bob Massey of REWealthCoach.com reveals that 51% of U.S. foreclosures in 2010 occurred in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, and Michigan. He says about 1.5 million properties were repossessed in these states last year. Read on to learn more.

You might probably have heard of this already but Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has recently revealed that real estate prices are expected to decline further because of distressed properties. According to Cory Boatright of ShortSaleFundamentals.com, S&P said the shadow inventory of distressed homes will impede with the recovery of the housing market. Because the rate of defaults and foreclosures is higher than the rate of home purchases, it would reportedly take a long time before we can see a huge improvement in the housing market. Read on to learn more.