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REO Deals Are Back! How to Profit from the Coming Wave of Foreclosures

By November 6, 2025Real Estate Pros Show

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Show Summary

In this conversation, Rick Kinzer discusses his company Cell24, which specializes in purchasing REO assets across the United States. He shares insights into their business model, the importance of relationships in real estate, and the challenges faced in the industry. Rick emphasizes the need for consistency and a long-term plan in real estate investing, while also highlighting the current market trends and opportunities for investors. He concludes with advice for aspiring investors and ways to connect with his business.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Rick Kinzer (00:00)
    You know, we just came off of one of the craziest, in my opinion, ⁓ government interventions in the real estate market that we’ve ever seen. So basically from COVID up until real recently, a lot of people were not making payments on their mortgages and they weren’t in default and their houses weren’t taken.

    And so right now we’re seeing the aftermath of that intervention. So almost everything going to the auction block in the markets that we track and we do track Georgia and we do track Texas ⁓ every month. We do that because all the auctions are the same day. It’s super Tuesday. And what we’re seeing is upwards of 60 % of the properties that actually go to the auction block or they go to the courthouse steps.

    Quentin (02:19)
    welcome everyone to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds and I’m excited to be here today. I’m excited that I’ve been graced with a patient man because we are having some technical issues, but I’m so thankful for this gentleman that’s here. I’m excited for you.

    to get to see things through his lens. He does great success in the REO market. ⁓ He’s just doing some just amazing things. And I’m gonna let him actually give you the download because I believe he’s such ⁓ unique at what he do. And that’s just my perspective. When I just think about what he’s told me so far, he really does a great job at what he does. And so I’m gonna let him actually tell you all the money.

    details, but please know that we’re to get a ton of value today from Mr. Kinzer. Mr. Rick, how you doing today, Good Q, how are you? Oh man, man, I’m doing good. Again, I thank you, sir. I thank you for your patience. And man, if I’m being honest, I kind of just want to dive in. I want the people to get a clear view of what it is that you do. So if you can tell us what, what, are you involved in? Like what are your main focus these days?

    Rick Kinzer (03:16)
    Good Q, how are you?

    Quentin (03:37)
    Even if you want to tell us a little bit of how you got started, I’m sure, you know, we love origin stories. So if you want to go into that a little bit, that’d be fine as well. And then also tell them what market you’re operating

    RIck Kinzer (03:47)
    Awesome. Thanks again for having me. We’re super excited to talk about our business. ⁓ My name is Rick Kinzer and ⁓ we are partners in a company called Cell24. Our business is really tied to purchasing REO assets. So we buy properties that have already gone through the foreclosure process, that have hit the bank’s balance sheets. And we purchase homes basically nationwide.

    We do focus a lot of our interest in the Atlanta and the Dallas market,

    Rick Kinzer (04:17)
    but we currently own properties in Arkansas, West Virginia. We do deals in Colorado and we have ⁓ an active portfolio that we’re looking at buying that’s got properties in Kentucky, Illinois, basically all over the United States. So our unique value prop is that we have relationships with some of the largest servicers.

    and also with a lot of the auction houses that liquidate. So we’re able to go in and buy these assets. We purchase them in cash and then we take those assets and we put them into the market. So

    we move assets through different channels. We will wholesale assets and sell those to investors before we close. ⁓ I’d say a large percentage of our properties were pushing through a whole tail model where we just do a clean out and then ensure the properties move in ready.

    put it on the market at an extremely discounted rate. And then on the properties that are more attractive, we will actually do the full fix and flip. So we do have a couple of fix and flips going right now ⁓ that look really good. I mean, they’ve got a lot of profit and a lot of opportunity. And we are always looking for buyers that want to get involved and purchase some of these deals.

    Quentin (06:12)
    you

    Absolutely. ⁓ So I, you know, I would, actually, I think what I want to ask is what’s been some of the key, some of the key ingredients to your, what’s been some of the key ingredients to you?

    You gotta plan with me. This is a-

    Rick Kinzer (06:55)
    Thank you. You were breaking up a bit, but I think you’re kind of asking how we’re what are our key ingredients and kind of what makes us different pulls us aside from, you know, anybody else that’s doing the same thing, right? ⁓ Well, I’d say our first key ingredient is that we have relationships that we’ve built over years through these servicing departments and through these auction houses. So we have quite a few ⁓ opportunities where we can go in with the relationships we’ve built and we can bid and we can

    Quentin (07:17)
    Thank

    Rick Kinzer (07:25)
    we can make offers on properties that would

    Quentin (07:26)
    This is so frustrating.

    Rick Kinzer (07:28)
    be harder to reach than other people that don’t have the relationships with some of the servicers, investors, small banks, credit unions, or the auction houses. ⁓ We also can buy properties in bulk. So we can go and buy a pool of homes, 10, 20, 30 at a time. ⁓ We do buy everything in cash. So we can say, hey, we’ll make a deal on this portfolio.

    And then as we buy those properties, we can split those up once we own them and we can sell direct to investor. We can put it back on the market. We can pull kind of any one of our liquidation channels into into play. ⁓ We love to just acquire as much as we can and we want to get it for as cheap as possible. And ultimately, we want to put it back out there into the investor pool ⁓ as an opportunity for.

    fix and flippers or people that are wanting to own rentals to be able to purchase these assets at an attractive price where there’s enough yield on the fix and flip or because your acquisition price is so low, if you’re buying rentals, you can create a really strong cap rate on the properties that you’re looking to acquire from us. ⁓ We do work with tons of different investors right now. We’re building out buy boxes. ⁓ Talked to a gentleman yesterday who

    has a super unique buy box. is purchasing in Mobile, Alabama, Augusta, Georgia, and also Columbus, Georgia. So ⁓ not a major market guy, but also markets that you can acquire properties for 35 to 40 cents on the dollar pretty easily. And if you’re in it for the long game, those are just amazing rentals. ⁓ Just a great place to put your money.

    And so we can work with these investors. We can go and try to find properties that specifically meet every one of their needs.

    Quentin (09:20)
    Mr. Rickman and I appreciate you so much. And thank you for taking us through some of the secrets of your saws, some of the secrets of your systems. I really appreciate that. Now, I know you have an amazing team behind you and I know things are not particularly always easy in this climate. And so, you know, I like to say that we show people the success, but sometimes we also have to show them the journey. And so have you guys…

    Rick Kinzer (09:47)
    Sure.

    Quentin (09:49)
    Have there been moments when things got real? Maybe when deals have gone sideways,

    maybe time when you had to pivot fast, like are there any stories like that? And again, because I want people to understand that while going in the journey to success, you will get some ups and downs. And so I would just, you you’re building things again, successful. And I was just wondering, maybe if you could share a story like that, that’s relatable to the audience.

    Rick Kinzer (10:43)
    Sure.

    Yeah, I mean, in any kind of business, you’re going to have ups and downs and your opportunities are going to evaporate. So you have to make sure that you have more opportunities in front of you. So we did have a relationship with a servicer when we first started the business. We had a 30 pack that we were selling. And unfortunately, the day before we actually closed our first deal, they pulled the whole thing from under our rug. So, and then also each property is going to have its own

    dynamics that you have to be ready for. We have a property currently that’s in eviction status that keeps getting delayed out. ⁓ that became a 30-day hold and it’s going to end up being a five-month hold. So you just have to be able to basically overcome those issues that you have. And I think that one of the big things that allows us to overcome those is that we do hold a lot of assets at any given time. We currently have nine properties going.

    We’re purchasing another 10 pack next week. So as each one of these deals moves through the pipeline, yes, we might have issues on 10, 20 % of those deals, but we have enough business moving that we can still continue to operate and push the business. And eventually those properties will fall in line, whether we end up having to keep them as rentals or once we’re able to disposition them, they’ll be profitable.

    We’re purchasing them at a low enough price that we have the flexibility where we could sit on the asset for six months versus just dumping it overnight. ⁓ I tell people all the time that we’re not wholesalers. We don’t have a two-week contract. I don’t expect you to give me $10,000 in earnest money and then wire me money at the end of the week. ⁓ We own the asset, so we have more flexibility with that. I think that gives us a great strong upside.

    that when we are presenting a product to our end buyer, you can do all the due diligence you want. ⁓ You can go in there, you can get a contractor in. We’re not trying to blow smoke and mirrors at you. We want everybody to make money. So, and if somebody buys a good deal from us this week, they’re gonna be more likely to buy a deal from us next time they have another need for another property. those are some things that we think are pretty cool that we do.

    But yeah, of course, adversity is gonna be something that you’re gonna have to deal with every time.

    Quentin (13:16)
    Absolutely.

    And I love your mindset. I love the way you approach, um, tough situations, man. And I think, you know, that’s really good. And I know our viewers, I know everything you just explained so far is really going to connect with our viewers and really help them sometimes. Cause we talked about mind shifts a lot here and that’s what it’s all about. Making sure that your mind is in the right place, making sure that you’re looking at what you need to look at and looking at it in an objective way. And so, um, let me ask you this. What is.

    The next real goal for you and your business, like what are you looking to solve a scale next?

    Rick Kinzer (13:52)
    Yeah, so I think what we’re looking at right now and we kind of have to look at trends and kind of where the market’s going, where the market’s been.

    You know, we just came off of one of the craziest, in my opinion, ⁓ government interventions in the real estate market that we’ve ever seen. So basically from COVID up until real recently, a lot of people were not making payments on their mortgages and they weren’t in default and their houses weren’t taken.

    And so right now we’re seeing the aftermath of that intervention. So almost everything going to the auction block in the markets that we track and we do track Georgia and we do track Texas ⁓ every month. We do that because all the auctions are the same day. It’s super Tuesday. And what we’re seeing is upwards of 60 % of the properties that actually go to the auction block or they go to the courthouse steps.

    They’re 21, 22, 23, and 24

    FHA and VA loans.

    So they’re all super high LTV. Hardly any of the loans have been paid off because a lot of times these people haven’t made more than a couple payments before they went into some level of protection through the government, whether it was a modification or a forbearance. And so as those go through foreclosure, they’re going through foreclosure at extreme high

    high numbers. So the credit bid on a property that’s only worth 350,000 might be 330,000. So nobody’s buying that home. Like there’s no reason that an investor would purchase a property without any yield. So what happens to that property is it goes through the HUD pool process and HUD ends up, you know, paying out a guarantee to that investor because those are insured mortgages, both FHA and BA. The HUD

    insurance program takes about six to eight months. So during that process, that property is going through eviction or it’s going through property preservation or whatever has to happen to keep the property from going into any kind of level of disarray or making the property worse. And so those properties will be moved through this HUD pool process by, you know, starting this coming spring into the summer. And so

    we feel like the opportunity to get involved in REO is awesome right now because there is going to be so much REO that gets paid out through HUD pools and will have to be liquidated come June, July, August, and next year. And that process, pending any government intervention, which who knows they could jump in and throw more programs at people. But if more programs aren’t thrown at people,

    You’re going to see so many opportunities in REO

    and it’s going to last for a couple of years because that pipeline of ⁓ FHA and VA paper is pretty much never ending right now. And ⁓ you’re going to have great, great opportunities to pick up properties at really good prices. And ⁓ we’re going to buy those properties. So we want to be able to purchase everything we can. We want to have our capital in line that we can acquire as much property as possible and then deliver those.

    Quentin (17:46)
    you

    Rick Kinzer (17:52)
    assets to our investors.

    Quentin (17:53)
    I love it. You know, I hear your concern for your investors. When we was talking earlier, you was talking about your team, your unique characters. So quickly, I want to talk about relationships. It seemed like relationships are very important to you. And so when it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

    Rick Kinzer (18:15)
    So I think consistency is one thing that always has to be taken into play in this business. ⁓ Nothing comes easy. You’re just not going to make money overnight in real estate. And I know that people will disagree that watch TikTok, that the guy that drives around in the Lamborghini who said he wholesales five houses a month, well, he rented that Lamborghini and he probably has never done a deal. ⁓ So I think that staying on top of our relationships with the banks and the credit unions.

    engaging with our buyer networks and just constantly being available too for our clients is one of the most important things, just real basic business basics, right? ⁓ And yeah, the relationships are key. I mean, in this business, it’s super small. We joke all the time that, you know, the real estate world is extremely incestual, right? You know, ⁓ only a certain number of people do all the deals. And so finding those people, building relationships with them, and then also putting out a good product.

    You know, like making sure that everything you put out there is a legitimate deal. ⁓ and we can sell properties to investors and they can make tons of money on it. They’re going to buy more properties from us, right? But if I sell a bunch of crap to guys and they end up losing cash, like they’re not going to come back talk to me again. They’re going to block my number on their iPhone. So, ⁓ yeah, I think relationship building and continuous relationship building is probably the key to success in, in, in the real estate world right now.

    Quentin (19:44)
    Yeah.

    Now I couldn’t agree more that relationships are everything in this space. so, listen, I appreciate you. Listen, before I get you out of here, is there one less maybe thought that you wanted to leave? Maybe some kind of inspiration, encouragement, maybe for people that’s listening, know, got people different, different walks of journey on their life. And just any kind of advice, maybe you wanted to give to somebody.

    Rick Kinzer (20:10)
    You know, it’s, like a keep grinding kind of mentality, right? Like it’s been a really hard couple of years, right? Everyone’s transitioned out of the boom years in real estate and it’s been tough. You know, I got a lot of buddies that just got the butts kicked left and right, you know, as, soon as rates went up and all these government programs hit and you know, the real estate markets slowed down, but opportunities are still there. You just have to jump on them and you have to stay focused. And instead of having like a two week plan, maybe have a two year plan.

    You know, build out your networks and start grinding today. So I think that’s super important is just to show up to work every day and fricking go chase that dollar brother.

    Quentin (20:52)
    Absolutely.

    Now, mean, listen, I appreciate you so much, Mr. Rick. I appreciate your story, your time. I appreciate your professionalism. Appreciate your grace, I really do, You know, I appreciate you, man. Listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, if there any information, any connectivity point,

    Rick Kinzer (21:06)
    Hey, anything to help you.

    Quentin (21:22)
    that you want to give from our viewers to be able to connect with you. Please, man, please share at this point.

    Rick Kinzer (21:30)
    Yeah, so I can be reached at at Rick at sign se ll the number two the number four homes.com. So that’s sell24homes.com. Hit me up on my cell phone 7206263014. We are out of ⁓ Denver, Colorado, but we focus a lot in Atlanta. We are looking for people that want to buy properties from us.

    So if you have a buy box, I want your buy box because I want to be able to put something in there for you. So those are the two major ways to get a hold of me. You can also visit us online at sell24homes.com. ⁓ And we do everything from purchasing properties in cash to buying pools of properties to analyzing portfolios for businesses. one other.

    side of our business is we have a really robust tech package. So if you’re an asset manager and you’ve got 400 homes that you need to liquidate, we can give you a value on all those and possibly even buy the whole package.

    So as he disappears into the abyss, hopefully everybody enjoyed hearing about us. ⁓ And like I said, if anybody wants to reach out, has any interest in this kind of business, I know REO is super hot right now. We’ve been jamming every day with people that are looking to get involved from a financial capital standpoint. ⁓ We’re always looking for investors, specifically investors that want some kind of passive return.

    We’re targeting pretty high returns on what we’re doing right now. if your money is in a money market getting 3.6 % and you are interested in getting an REO, we might have a great opportunity for you to throw some more capital at something that’s going to have a higher yield. So that’s kind of where we’re at. And we also have couple properties for sale right now too. We actually have about 16. ⁓

    People are buying in rural Arkansas, the Atlanta market, Dallas market, ⁓ West Virginia, or Colorado. We have properties available right now. And then if you have more of a Midwest or East Coast focus, we actually have the opportunity to pick up quite a few properties in Illinois, Ohio, ⁓ vacant properties in New York. We are not doing anything occupied in New York.

    We have a couple of New Jersey opportunities and then we are starting to see quite a bit more paper coming in Texas. So those are kind of where we’re seeing a lot of our product right now. We also have access to a ton of occupied homes. So if there’s an occupied buyer out there that is interested in buying some really cheap occupied homes, that is one thing that…

    We can purchase, but we do want to have a exit strategy for that because we really don’t want to hold that paper for the period of time that’s going to be required for the eviction. But if that’s what you’re into, we can get that for you too. A lot of it.

    A lot of it. There’s a lot of that.

    Quentin (24:48)
    Man,

    Mr. Rick, you are the man, sir. I thank you, sir. I appreciate you, I just appreciate you, man. Listen, you have been great. You have been stellar. I know our listeners are going to take a great lot of value away from what you have given on this episode today. And so I thank you for being here today, man. Again, I thank you for your story.

    Rick Kinzer (24:52)
    Q your back. All right.

    No worries.

    Quentin (25:17)
    your patience, your grace, your professionalism. Just appreciate you today, man, honestly.

    Rick Kinzer (25:23)
    Sweet, thanks Q, I appreciate you letting us talk about our business.

    Quentin (25:28)
    Absolutely. So listen, everyone, you heard Mr. Rick, the guy’s been great. You got value from what he said. Listen, we want to make sure that you are subscribed that way you can continue to get the valuable content and the valuable nuggets that our guests continue to bring time after time. And Mr. Rick was no exception today. He just did a great and phenomenal job. so Mr. Rick, I thank you again and listen to everyone else. We will see you on the next time. ⁓

    Rick Kinzer (25:55)
    Happy he-

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