One problem is that many sellers these days have loans for more than what the property would sell for, or have loan terms you wouldn’t want to take over. These won’t be good candidates. At the opposite extreme, a seller with substantial equity is going to want a significant cash payment that most buyers won’t have. And REOs can’t be purchased this way. So buyers would have to do quite a bit of searching to find a deal that would work as a “subject to” purchase.

The good news is that if you have the time to sift through the listings, inventory is so high and sits so long that you probably could find some opportunities where this type of approach would make sense. Assuming of course that you can find a deal where it makes sense to buy in the first place!