REO has long been the red-headed stepchild of the housing industry, the one nobody pays any attention to and just wants it taken care of quickly and swiftly.

It certainly hasn’t been a niche of the industry where housing folks are interested in opening up the conversation about how to improve sales metrics or otherwise expand the potential of this area of housing.

Why not?

These days, most big banks and servicers have a large book of distressed assets they are liquidating by the day. Wouldn’t it make sense to take a closer look at how we might gain more business from the people and properties already within our reach?

Think about it. Paying attention to the buyer of a distressed property might lead to lending to them for the purchase. As you liquidate properties out the back door, consider how you might originate new loans using information from the same properties – by reaching out to the purchasers.

And that’s just one idea of so many possibilities.

Ultimately, in business, we should be trying to wring every dollar out of leads right under our fingertips rather than letting them slip away. There is always more than meets the eye. Spending a little bit of time figuring out how to recoup more from the same information is common sense. Not doing so is just plain stupid.