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60 BULK BUYER BOOM IN RETAIL e narrative is much different in the broader retail housing market, where purchases by large-volume buyers are booming. According to public record data from ATTOM Data Solutions, buyers purchasing 10 or more properties in a calendar year—called bulk buyers by ATTOM—purchased more than half a million homes in 2021 (530,025), a new record high as far back as data is available (2000) and more than twice the number purchased in 2020 (205,934) or in the pre- pandemic market of 2019 (258,780). e bulk buyer purchases accounted for 8.4% of all home sales in 2021, the highest share since 2013. BULK BUYERS BALK AT DISTRESS Consistent with the Auction.com data, the public record data shows bulk buyer purchases at foreclosure auction plummeting in recent years, both in terms of actual numbers and in terms of the share of all sales. e number of bulk buyer purchases at foreclosure auction decreased to a new record low of 4,179 in 2021. ose bulk buyer purchases accounted for just 11.5% of all foreclosure auction sales during the year, up slightly from 11.1% in 2020 but lower than any year before 2020 and well below the peak of 52.0% in 2009. So far in 2022, only 5.4% of foreclosure auction sales were to bulk buyers while 5.6% of overall home sales were to bulk buyers. Many of the Wall Street-backed institutional investors got their start buying at foreclosure auction in the wake of the 2008 recession, when large numbers of relatively new properties were being foreclosed. But the more distressed condition of most properties now available at foreclosure auction no longer fits into the buy box for these "hedge-fund" investors, according to Terry Kerr, President of Memphis-based Mid South Home Buyers, which focuses on adding value after purchasing distressed properties. "e Blackstones and the Vinebrooks aren't going to look at those properties," he said. "We're taking a house and gutting it. All new components. … e hedge funds aren't doing large improvements." RENOVATING RIGHT Atlanta-based real estate investor Tony Tritt agreed that distressed properties sold at foreclosure auction—conducted at county courthouses in Georgia—are mostly avoided by the institutional investors active in his market. "e ones we pick up on the courthouse steps are the ones the institutional investors steer clear of," said Tritt, who renovates and resells most of the distressed properties he sells to owner-occupant buyers. "Our role is not for us to get rich, but to do right. I renovate a house. If I have to lose money on that house, I lose money, but I renovate it right because I have to sell it to somebody, and I have to live with myself." TECH HELPS LOCAL BUYERS COMPETE Technology that allows buyers to bid remotely at foreclosure auction or REO auction is also helping smaller-volume, local buyers compete against institutional investors. Historically, institutional investors have had the upper hand at in-person foreclosure auctions. ey had the resources to deploy employees or other proxies to attend and bid at the auction. "With Auction.com, it's great because I get to do it in the safety of my own home where I'm in my PJs," said Karen Tyler, a Hampton Roads, Virginia-based real estate agent and investor who purchased her own home through an online REO auction while on a trip to Florida. "[I] pushed the button on the phone to bid, and in the Uber the next morning on the way to the airport—still in Florida, to come Feature By: Daren Blomquist