"REO" means Real Estate Owned. These are houses which have been foreclosed upon that the bank or mortgage company presently possesses. This differs from real estate up for foreclosure auction. 
When buying a property during a foreclosure sale, you must pay at least the loan balance plus any interest and other fees accumulated during the foreclosure process. The buyer must also be able to pay with cash in hand. And on top of all that, you'll get the property 100% as is. That possibly will include current liens and even current tenants that need to be evicted.
A bank-owned property, by contrast, is a much cleaner and attractive option. The REO property didn't find a buyer during foreclosure auction. Now the lender owns it. The lender will take care of the elimination of tax liens, evict occupants if needed and generally arrange for the issuance of a title insurance policy to the buyer at closing.
Note that REOs may be exempt from normal disclosure requirements. For instance, in California, banks do not have to give a Transfer Disclosure Statement, a document that usually requires sellers to make known any defects of which they are knowledgeable. By hiring Park Place Real Estate, you can rest assured knowing all parties are fulfilling Oregon state disclosure requirements. Is REO property in Portland a bargain?
It's sometimes presumed that any foreclosure must be a good buy and a possibility for easy money. This isn't always true. You have to be prudent about buying a REO if your intent is make money. While it's true that the bank is often eager to offload it promptly, they are also looking to minimize any losses.
When pondering what to pay for REO property, carefully analyze comparable sales in the neighborhood and be sure to take into account the time and cost of any repairs or remodeling needed to prepare the house for resale. There are bargains with potential to make money, and many people do very well buying and selling foreclosures. Still there are also many REOs that are not good buys and not likely to turn a profit. Time to make an offer?
Most lenders have staff dedicated to REO that you'll work with in buying REO property from them. Usually the REO department will use a listing agent to get their REO properties listed on the local MLS.
Before making your offer, you'll want to contact either the listing agent or REO department at the bank and learn as much as you can about what they know about the condition of the property and what their process is for getting offers. Since banks almost always sell REO properties "as is", it's often prudent to include an inspection contingency in your offer that gives you time to check for unseen damage and cancel the offer if you find it. If, as a buyer, you can provide documentation demonstrating your ability to secure financing, such as a pre-approval letter from a lender, your offer will be more attractive and likely be accepted. (This holds for any real estate offer.)
Once you've submitted your offer, it's customary for the bank to respond with a counter offer. At this point it will be up to you to decide whether to accept their counter, or submit another counter offer. Understand, you'll be contending with a process that usually involves multiple people at the bank, and they don't work evenings or weekends. It's not unusual for the process of offers and counter offers to take days or even weeks. Park Place Real Estate is are used to working around the schedules of this type of seller and will do everything possible to ensure there are no unnecessary delays.
