I was looking at some reo's in southern california and they are not as discounted as i would have thought. what do you guys think is the average price discount that you would get from an reo? Also what are the pros and cons of buying an reo?

reo's are good because they are proboly the safest way to get a discounted property, but although you can sometime get a good deal, the bank still try to make money off them, so most likely your not going to get a steal. Alot of times big lenders emply a realtor specifically to handle reo's. This makes it much more difficult to get a really good price, because a realtor who know the area will know what its worth an will try to get the most they can by selling the property. Smaller lenders on the other hand often want to get rid of them and will most likely sell at a greater discount.
I would say in general the average discount on an reo is 10-20% which is great if you are trying to purchase a home to live in, but not the steal you might want if you are an investor.

another good thing about reo's is that you dont have to worry about liens like you would have to with other type of forclosed properties. Banks usually bring the property taxes current.
Also you often dont have to put as much cash down on reos

i was looking at bank owned home recently. The houses were listed at around 50k below the market value of home priced between 750-850K. Which is a really good deal if you want to find a house to live in. But if you are an investor and are looking for a great deal you might want to check out preforcosures or auctions. You need a great deal if you are looking to do a flip these day. But they are out there.

another good thing about reos is that is is often easy to get financing when your dealing with the bank. They want to make a quick sale so they are often for than happy to help you get financing and you most likely will not have to put down as much money as you would otherwise.