|
|
“It’s generating quite a buzz,” said Adam Davis, an agent for Classic Properties, which will host the free tour of Scranton-area properties. “People I don’t know are coming up to ask me about it.”
The two-hour-plus tour will stop at six vacant houses that banks reclaimed through foreclosures, giving prospective buyers opportunities to inspect bedrooms and kitchens, peek in cabinets and closets, gauge home prices and qualities.
Foreclosure bus tours started wheeling and dealing in California as home repossessions there skyrocket. The subprime lending debacle, tight credit and depressed housing prices drove foreclosures to an all-time high in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Classic Properties saw an opportunity to increase business and be the first agency to conduct such a tour in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and possibly the state.
“It’s such a big success out West,” broker/owner Steve Farrell said. “People are looking for foreclosures because everybody wants to deal.”
At least 26 people will tour homes priced between $55,000 and $127,500 and ranging from fixer-uppers to ready-to-occupy.
“These are people looking for homes to live in or investment properties,” said Davis, who will host the tour with co-worker Sara Levy. “Once they see what’s out there, they are going to want to invest in something.”
Participants must make financial disclosures proving they are financially able to buy and must sign agreements assuring Classic Properties commissions if the tour generates sales.
“We don’t want people who can’t afford anything to get on the bus and take a seat,” Farrell said. “They must be serious buyers.”
Foreclosure tours are also common in Nevada, Florida and other areas hit hard by the subprime crisis. But they are relatively unknown in Pennsylvania.
“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” said Samantha Elliott Krepps, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors. “I haven’t found any others in the state.”
Eileen Chaladoff, president of the Pocono Mountains Association of Realtors, was amused when told about the tour.
“No one is doing it here, but that’s not a bad idea,” Chaladoff said. “It’s a novelty idea, saving on gas and everyone’s time.”
The tour represents housing and investment opportunities, not commercial capitalization on the misfortunes of people who lost their homes, Farrell said.
“These are properties the banks want to unload,” he said. “They are lost already. They are gone.”
Classic Properties will host another tour April 27 and Farrell expects buyer interest to expand substantially by then.
“We’re anticipating a 20 percent increase in foreclosed listings by that time,” he said. “We’re going to have to get a bigger bus.”
jhaggerty@timesshamrock.com
