Image source: flickr — drylcons
What do you imagine the price tag on a house in foreclosure should be?
Well, expect to see a bus with something like “The Repo Express” painted on its side, rolling down a street near you, and you’ll learn soon enough.
This week a large such vehicle emblazoned with the letters “Repo Home Tours” was seen combing the hardest hit neighborhoods in Pasadena California.
The bus was operated by just another franchisee sanctioned by a Stockton real estate broker and mortgage consultant who originated the idea of sending prospective home buyers around in groups to view clusters of distressed properties for sale in the wake of the mortgage meltdown.
Other entrepreneurs have jumped on this…uh…bus-wagon in such far-flung cities as Dallas and Palm Beach.
The advantage to the potential buyers is obvious: they don’t have to drive or fill their tanks with expensive gas; the tour operators have located the foreclosed on properties and organized their viewing in logical fashion; and, as the LA Times pointed out Tuesday, “Tour operators are able to promote each home on the ride over, explain down payments, offer loans and foster enthusiasm out of an otherwise dreary landscape.”
The Stockton real estate “wizard” who launched the idea of organized bus trips to the Land of Bargains (where cash and good credit are required) claims he’s actually performing a service to the communities hardest hit. Nobody, he says, wants an empty house with foreclosure signs peppering the front lawn on their block, blighting the neighborhood.
As indelicate as it may seem…maybe he’s right. The banks own the houses now, not the hapless former residents.
What do you think?
If you want to view a comprehensive report on the Repo Bus Tour phenomenon and its implications for the national economy, check out this video on YouTube.
The New Nest 