A lot of listings of REOs come from RE agents or companies that send a list of them to you for a nominal fee. My question is if I call a local bank and ask for a list of their REOs, do they or will they furnish me with a copy of that list? Or will I have to pay an agent or a company for the same information? I ask. not because of the fee but because I would like to get first dibs on these properties before agents list them and or they go out on cyberspace. I would like to eliminate the competion.

Your best bet is to become best friends with one of the listing agents who deal with the big banks.

If you call a bank, most will direct you to them so that is one way of finding out the agents name. Or talk with a local title company and ask them. The banks will line up both agents and required title companies.

The smaller banks may deal directly with you. Good luck.

Until you start buying large blocks of properties the banks will not even talk to you. Best bet is to smooze with the REO agents and get first shot from them. This method is getting tougher these days as a lot of lenders are requiring 10 days on the market before looking at any offers.

Yes, if you're looking for REOs from small, local banks, most of them will be happy to talk to you directly, and if you give them reason to believe you're a serious buyer, you can probably get added to their marketing list for when future properties become available.

Oftentimes, the small, local banks are happy to sell their REO inventory before they get listed with an agent (in fact, at least in my area, most inventory from small banks never makes it to the MLS).

This won't work for the larger regional banks or the national banks, though. For those, stick with the listing agents...

Thanks to all you guys for your input. I will definitely start off by calling the small banks in my area. As far as agents I do have one, so I'll be continuing with him as well.