With prices down, real estate agents across the country report that more investors are interested in acquiring properties this way. A deed may bear the lender’s name, but because banks and other lenders sell loans into the secondary mortgage market, the real owner of both the loan and property is often hidden. The lender “doesn’t have to tell you who you’re actually dealing with,” said Jim Richman, president of Richman & Associates, a real estate and debt restructuring firm in Glendale, Calif. Legislation that just passed in the Senate may be fueling more interest in lender-owned homes, by suggesting that people who buy foreclosure properties should get a $7,000 tax credit to be claimed over two years. And Johnson says though lenders may drag their feet selling properties they own, many contracts carry steep per-day penalty fees, for every day the buyer exceeds an escrow closing date. read more