We’ve been doing it here for a while. Since Phoenix is one of the nation’s foreclosure hotspots (primarily due to the speculator-driven over-inflation of home prices and subsequent overbuilding – for more, check out last year’s blog “What’s behind the foreclosure crisis”), we’ve been helping first time and seasoned homebuyers, as well as investors, purchase homes that banks have foreclosed on for a while. 

Lately, the demand for these homes (also called real-estate owned, or REO) has been so high, that we just couldn’t handle all of the requests from prospective buyers who wanted to see the opportunities we had for them to buy a great home at a great price. So the “Bank Repo Bus Tour” was born.

Turns out, our idea isn’t so unique after all (either that or it’s simply catching on, in Arizona and other parts of the country).  Last weekend, an article in the San Francisco Chronicle told about a Northern California “Foreclosure Bus Tour.”

According to that article, “the Stockton agent who pioneered the foreclosure tour concept reportedly was inspired by Hollywood tours of movie stars' homes. Needless to say, many foreclosure tours are more down-market, with the spirit of a field trip to factory outlet stores.”

One real estate agent in Maryland calls her foreclosure bus tour a “seminar on wheels,” according to an article last week on Gazette.net.

That article pointed out one important goals of a foreclosure bus tour: to educate potential buyers.  “The tours, a national trend in areas where foreclosure rates are high, aim to debunk the belief among many potential homebuyers that all foreclosed homes are risky investments that would require a large amount of renovation to make them livable.”

Yet some people call buying a bank-owned home or one that’s in the process of being foreclosed is “vulture-like.”  One potential buyer quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle article indeed wondered if he was a vulture.

But selling bank-owned homes and those in the foreclosure process (short sales) as rapidly as possible is actually good for the market.  One Bay-area real estate agent quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle article said “we're trying to help get rid of some of this inventory, to get us out of this mess. We’ve got a ton of (foreclosed) homes on the market and are getting more and more in the hopper.”  The same is true in Arizona.

If you’re interested in buying a bank-owned home, first read last year’s blog post on how to wisely invest in short sales and foreclosures.  If it sounds like it might be for you, hop aboard and take a ride!