New York Foreclosure Bus Tours And Catchy Signs

Posted on June 25, 2008
Filed Under Foreclosure Homes |

The New York foreclosure white touring bus has a catchy sign ‘Long Island Foreclosure Tours”. A dozen or so passengers disembarked to inspect a small house in East Meadow hoping to save $100,000 at the least on the bargain. The house was in disrepair with a cracked driveway and sagging vinyl sidings. In front of the entrance was a no-trespassing sign. There was mold and in all likelihood the water supply was cut off. The broker Dean Miller aboard the tour made no bones about it. The price being asked for this 1951 in Lois Court was $312,900. Last February it was $457,101.

The rolling bus is proof of the raging foreclosure crisis in New York City. Prospective buyers are charged $75 for occupying velvety seats to munch snacks while visiting eight repossessed houses accompanied by a contractor and house inspector. Broker Miller explained to the group that the three bed roomed one bath unit is in a nice neighbourhood and the price is $1,000 less than the houses surrounding it.

The market is flooded with similar bargains. Last April in Nassau County one out of 913 houses were in foreclosure. This is double the number of the previous year during the same month. The average price of houses across the county fell by 2.3% during the first quarter and the number walking into the for sale zone rose to 9,862.

Foreclosures are dotting even apparently healthy regions. New Yorkers are getting a chance to move into units they could not have otherwise afforded. The East Meadow house and similar other small units are just 45 minutes commuting distance from Manhattan.

Few weeks ago Sheir Cambareri of Miller’s office at Mineola, thought up of this plan of bus tours to promote sales. She was sharing drinks with broker Dave Farrell when the brainwave hit her. While working on another job she had organized tours to the pyramids and the Galapagos Islands for American Museum of Natural History members at New York. An archeologist and anthropologist had accompanied those tours. For these tours she thought up the idea of having on board a mortgage broker, an attorney and a contractor.

The first stop was on Clinton Road. The asking price was $509,900. The owner had defaulted on $600,000. A neighbouring house similar to this one had been sold a year previously for $560,000. Thus it is a win-win situation for all considering the background of the foreclosure crisis.