BARRE — David Hough is a friendly, talkative guy. But if you're meeting him for the first time, there's a chance you're not going to be happy about it. That's because Hough is a "repo" man. The Barre businessman is owner of Eye on Vermont Investigative and Recovery Services, and he has been repossessing property in northern Vermont for more than 13 years.
Just about everything, as it turns out, can be repossessed. Hough has hauled away heavy equipment, canning equipment, even a phone system from an office in Burlington.
Automobiles, though, are his bread and butter.
Hough has scaled back on recovery work lately because of the high-stress nature of the work and high gas prices. But those same gas prices, coupled with a sagging economy, appear to be causing the number of auto repossessions in Vermont and the Northeast to grow.
Greg Vernet is the general manager of public auto auctions for the Thomas Hirchak Co., which runs the largest public auto auction in the state. In January and February of this year, he said, Hirchak auctioned off 72 percent more repossessed cars than they did during the same time last year. That high number then came to a screeching halt for a few months, Vernet said, before picking up again.
"I don't know why," he said. "It's usually consistent, and then it just stopped."
That trend didn't last, however, and over the past six weeks, Vernet said, the repossessed cars have started rolling onto the auction block once again. "The repos are out in full force," he said.
Many late model cars are appearing at auction, which was "almost unheard of in past years," said Vernet. With the advent of high gas prices, vans and SUVs and family cars have made up the bulk of repossessed vehicles arriving at Hirchak's auction. Vernet also expected to see a lot of pickup trucks at auction, but there haven't been any.
"This is kind of an Alice-in-Wonderland situation where what you expect is not what you get," Vernet said.
Mark Bradley, owner of Buy Right, a used car dealership in East Montpelier, used to do his own repossessions as a "buy-here, pay-here" business, but he said he took too much of a loss and was spending too much time chasing cars and money. Bradley often buys vehicles at auction for resale.
At the Southern Auto Auction in Windsor Locks, Conn., recently, Bradley said TD Banknorth had 100 repossessed cars, Ford Motor Credit Co. had 125, Citi Financial had 150, Capital One had 50, and Bank of America had 75, out of about 5,000 cars at the auction.
"The amount of repos is unbelievable," Bradley said.
Just about everything, as it turns out, can be repossessed. Hough has hauled away heavy equipment, canning equipment, even a phone system from an office in Burlington.
Automobiles, though, are his bread and butter.
Hough has scaled back on recovery work lately because of the high-stress nature of the work and high gas prices. But those same gas prices, coupled with a sagging economy, appear to be causing the number of auto repossessions in Vermont and the Northeast to grow.
Greg Vernet is the general manager of public auto auctions for the Thomas Hirchak Co., which runs the largest public auto auction in the state. In January and February of this year, he said, Hirchak auctioned off 72 percent more repossessed cars than they did during the same time last year. That high number then came to a screeching halt for a few months, Vernet said, before picking up again.
"I don't know why," he said. "It's usually consistent, and then it just stopped."
That trend didn't last, however, and over the past six weeks, Vernet said, the repossessed cars have started rolling onto the auction block once again. "The repos are out in full force," he said.
Many late model cars are appearing at auction, which was "almost unheard of in past years," said Vernet. With the advent of high gas prices, vans and SUVs and family cars have made up the bulk of repossessed vehicles arriving at Hirchak's auction. Vernet also expected to see a lot of pickup trucks at auction, but there haven't been any.
"This is kind of an Alice-in-Wonderland situation where what you expect is not what you get," Vernet said.
Mark Bradley, owner of Buy Right, a used car dealership in East Montpelier, used to do his own repossessions as a "buy-here, pay-here" business, but he said he took too much of a loss and was spending too much time chasing cars and money. Bradley often buys vehicles at auction for resale.
At the Southern Auto Auction in Windsor Locks, Conn., recently, Bradley said TD Banknorth had 100 repossessed cars, Ford Motor Credit Co. had 125, Citi Financial had 150, Capital One had 50, and Bank of America had 75, out of about 5,000 cars at the auction.
"The amount of repos is unbelievable," Bradley said.
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