Investors looking for somewhere to park their cash flocked to REO properties last year, according to RealtyTrac. As a result, the firm’s latest Foreclosure News Report determined, homes purchased for investment purposes surged 65 percent to 1.2 million in 2011 from 749,000 the previous year. “Hundreds of thousands of these decrepit properties can’t be financed because banks won’t lend money to regular homebuyers (or investors) to purchase them, leaving cash investors as the only buyers,” wrote Octavio Nuiry, who put together the RealtyTrac report. | Read More