CHICAGO—The aftermath of the recession left a lot of property inthe hands of banks, but as the economy has improved, banks havealso gotten more aggressive in pricing this hodge-podge ofbuildings and vacant land, leading to an increase in sales, expertssay.

“We're seeing it all across the Chicago area,” John R.Homsher, a principal at Podolsky|Circle CORFACInternational, tells GlobeSt.com. Although a lot of peoplejumped into selling bank-owned properties in the last few years,Riverwoods, IL-based Podolsky|Circle has made it a specialty since1986, and whenever the markets crash, “we get called on a lot.Currently, we're working pretty actively with four or five regionalbanks.”

“It was around 2010 when all of these properties started hittingthe market,” Homsher says. During the crash and just after, theFDIC took over failing banks and had to convincehealthier ones to assume control. And the latter now had theresponsibility to work through these new portfolios and dispose ofthe assets. Banks typically don't want to lease these propertieslike a typical landlord, but instead, “they want to set a price andmove them off their books.”