Bus tour showcases foreclosed homes

Brown, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Vanguard, led Springfield’s first foreclosure bus tour Aug. 9, showing seven Springfield-area homes to a group of about 30 people, the maximum amount the bus could accommodate. The tour was dubbed the Real Estate Owned, or REO, Speedbus Tour.

Prices for homes on the inaugural foreclosure bus tour ranged in price from $29,000 to more than $450,000. All of the homes on the tour are listed with Coldwell Banker and are available because their lenders foreclosed on them.

Brown already is planning more tours to inform potential buyers about additional houses expected to come on the market due to foreclosure.

Currently, one out of every 747 properties statewide is in foreclosure, according to online real estate firm RealtyTrac, and foreclosure-related filings, including notices of default, were up 1.7 percent between June and July.

Variety

Brown got the idea for the foreclosure tour after learning about a similar program in Atlanta during a national news broadcast.

The local tour included Brown and fellow Coldwell Banker Realtor Peggy Mitchell, as well as BancorpSouth mortgage lender Kevin Dull.

“I wanted to have a loan officer on hand in case someone saw a home they wanted to have right then,” Brown said.

While one offer was made during the tour, the property was sold before that deal could close.

Three types of people were drawn to the tour, Brown said. On board were people shopping for new homes to live in, investors who wanted to acquire new property and those who were curious about what the market had to offer.

Participant Carol Rusk fit into the two latter categories. A Springfield native who returned to the city a few years ago after living out of state, Rusk said she was unfamiliar with the local real estate market.

“I thought (the tour) would be a good opportunity to have someone else guide me through a variety of different properties, and that’s exactly what it was,” said Rusk, who noted that she was looking more for potential investment property than for a new home.

“We had a good time,” Brown said, adding that he offered prize drawings for participants. “We made it fun rather than a high-pressure thing, and it made a good time of it.”

Brown said a waiting list for the first tour, which was no cost for participants, propelled him to plan others. The next foreclosure tour could be held in late September, he said, noting that future tours would be targeted toward specific types of customers – home buyers versus investors or inexpensive homes versus pricier properties.

Rusk said she’s looking forward to the next event.

“I’ll go every time he has one, because I want to continue to educate myself, and it’s so much easier when you don’t have to do the driving,” said Rusk, who is seriously considering making an offer on one of the properties she saw on the August tour. “By getting familiar with neighborhoods and properties and picking up conversations with all the other investors and real estate experts that were there, it was really very educational.”

A growing market

There’s likely to be plenty of available homes for future foreclosure bus tours.

RealtyTrac data show that some type of foreclosure document was filed on 3,512 Missouri properties in July.

Those filings include notices of default, foreclosure and trustee sales and properties that have been repurchased by a bank after foreclosure. Such filings are up 73 percent compared to the same time last year, according to the RealtyTrac report.

Springfield-specific numbers aren’t much better; foreclosure information collector First American CoreLogic said 0.8 percent of outstanding mortgage loans in the Springfield area were in foreclosure in June, up from 0.5 percent in June 2007. The same study said that 2.5 percent of local mortgage loans were 90 days or more delinquent in June, compared to 1.7 percent 12 months earlier.

Despite the less than stellar numbers, Kevin White, senior vice president and loan production manager for Arvest Bank in Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, gave the same advice banks and financial experts have always given to homeowners in financial trouble: Contact lenders as soon as trouble becomes apparent.

“In our company, we service virtually every loan we make, and we’re working diligently to keep people in their homes rather than foreclosing on their homes,” White said, noting that adjustable-rate mortgage holders are still especially vulnerable. “We’re quick to say, ‘Hey look, let’s find a way to modify your deal – maybe we can give you a fixed rate that would be manageable for you and your family and keep you in your home.’”

Homes on Tour

Seven houses were featured on Mike Brown’s first foreclosure bus tour (all prices are as of Aug. 9):

1022 W. Lynn: Two bedrooms, one bath, 1,046 square feet - $29,900

1633 N. Marlan: Two bedrooms, one bath, 840 square feet - $43,000

3116 W. Roxbury: Three bedrooms, two baths, 1,205 square feet - $99,990

735 S. Meteor*: Four bedrooms, two baths, 1,620 square feet - $128,500

4895 S. Buckingham: Four bedrooms, three baths, 2,888 square feet - $183,000

2844 E. Cherrybark: Four bedrooms, four baths, 5,543 square feet - $449,900

2805 E. Cherrybark: Four bedrooms, three baths, 4,729 square feet - $462,900

*Property has since sold.[[In-content Ad]]