Hello, I am new to biggerpockets, and I am super excited about all of the available resources from investing to wholesaling in the forums.  I am a licensed real estate agent in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. I am looking for any information on becoming a reo agent.  I read an older post that had a video, but the post was 8 years old, and the link on the video for BofA is no longer active.  Do you have to register with Equator?  Do you have to go through your broker to register as a vendor to provide services to banks? I would appreciate any information! :-)     

@Janet Freeman welcome to Bigger Pockets! I looked into this several years back, but opted not to get into it as the REO market here in Chicago seemed to be tough to break into. I know @Mark Ferguson did this very successfully and could weigh in.  I think the biggest problem right now in the REO industry is that there are not many REO properties in a lot of markets. I know I am seeing less and less of them in the Forest Park or Berwyn markets where I am working. 

@Janet Freeman - Can you ask your managing broker or local board?  I think it varies by area and your local board should have classes

Thank you @Brie Schmidt .  I will check with HRRA and my broker.  

@Janet Freeman If you want to be a REO agent I would recommend seeing if you can get on a well established team in your area that does a lot of REO transactions. Getting your foot in the door that way can lead to opportunities to work directly with banks & asset managers who are the people you need to get in front of if you want to be in that business.

Not to mention a REO team with a lot of listings can also provide you the opportunity to develop buyer leads from people who inquire about listings.

I was selling over 200 REOs a year after the crash. Last year I sold 1! Haha, the market has changed slightly here. It actually makes it a good time to get into REO because there is less competition. It is not easy and it will take time to get in with banks. You can usually do BPOs right away though.

I would talk to your broker as most banks want the broker to register and not the agent. If there is already another REO agent in your office it can be really tough to gain headway as that agent will not want competition. Joining an REO team can help, but they could also require you to sign a non compete agreement which I did. You don't want to train someone to help your team and then have them try to take your clients away.

@Mark Ferguson Thank you! Yes, most banks want the broker to register. I work for a small company of 4 agents. I will talk to my broker again to see if she is registered. We have a lot of listings on the market in my area that are REO, VA, HUD, VHDA. I guess I need to network with other realtors.

Originally posted by @Janet Freeman :

@Mark Ferguson Thank you! Yes, most banks want the broker to register. I work for a small company of 4 agents. I will talk to my broker again to see if she is registered. We have a lot of listings on the market in my area that are REO, VA, HUD, VHDA. I guess I need to network with other realtors.

 The best thing to do is start registering yourself with as many companies as you can. Start doing as many bpos as you can. Usually you can register yourself as the point of contact, but the broker is the main agent with the bank. With most BPO companies you can register directly as the agent. 

Hey @Mark Ferguson , would you recommend an agent who would like to get into doing REOs to strictly do BPOs when they are first starting out? My brokerage doesn't allow any agents to perform BPOs, do you think that it's best if I leave that company and find a new one? Thanks in advance.