Clever bus tours aid the home buyer and seller

With real estate markets deflated, home marketing professionals are actively seeking new and effective ways to help sell distressed and foreclosed properties. One concept that is gaining ground is the foreclosed home bus tour. Potential home buyers have taken well to the concept. So well, in fact, that they're even willing to pay a small fee for the service.

Foreclosed home bus tours are taking root in regions as diverse as California, Phoenix and Detroit. In a report from the Associated Press about one of Florida's foreclosed home bus tours, it stated: "A cost of $45 per person or $65 per couple covered the tour, house information, teaching sessions, a continental breakfast and lunch at Applebee's. Everyone on the bus said the fee was worth it."

The concept has many potential benefits. It can multiply the effectiveness of real estate agents in exposing properties to potential buyers and can provide home shoppers with an atmosphere that is both fun and relaxed. The diversity of clientele on the tours allows for a broader pattern of thought for each individual home shopper by exposing them to the observations and opinions of their home tour companions.

Janice Ziesig, owner of Z House Realty Group in Orlando, told Associated Press: "It's turning out just the way it's supposed to. We wanted to do something different. We wanted to teach people. People are interested. It gets people to call."

This just goes to show that even in a depressed home-selling market such as the one we have now, the best of the real estate agents will nearly always find a way to get the job done.