"Boat repo man" -- As the Bush economy sinks, another career opportunity surfaces

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/business/20repo.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5087&em&en=c4d055b10b190f92&ex=1211428800

May 20, 2008
Economic Tide Is Rising for Repo Man

By DAVID STREITFELD
HARRISON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — So many people have so many things they can no longer afford. This is an excellent time to be a repo man.

When a boat owner defaults on his loan, the bank hires Jeff Henderson to seize its property. The former Army detective tracks the boat down in a backyard or a marina or a garage and hauls it to his storage area and later auctions it off. After nearly 20 years in the repossession business, Mr. Henderson has never been busier.

“I used to take the weak ones,” he said. “Now I’m taking the whole herd.”

Boating was traditionally the pastime of the well-off, but the long housing boom and its gusher of easy credit changed that. People refinanced their homes and used the cash for down payments on a cruiser, miniyacht or sailboat. From 2000 to 2006, retail sales for the recreational boating industry rose by more than 40 percent, to $39.5 billion, while the average loan amount more than tripled to $141,000.

Last year, as real estate faltered, the gears went into reverse. The number of boats sold fell 8 percent. Many boats are fuel hogs, and rising gasoline and diesel prices meant a weekend jaunt could cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Owners found they could not sell a boat for what they owed and could not refinance either.

The solution for some is simply to stop paying on Jersey Dreamin’ or Just Do It or Bally Hoo. Then one day they come home and it is gone.

Mr. Henderson’s company, Harrison Marine, has seven employees as well as half a dozen part-timers, making it one of the largest boat repo operations in the country. The business usually slacks off in the spring as the boating season begins and delinquent owners try to fend off the bank long enough to have some fun.

Not this year. Mr. Henderson, 48, is repossessing nearly a boat a day, most from the Great Lakes area but a few farther afield. He is looking for a man from the Bronx named Rocko, who told the bank his 34-foot cruiser was at a marina that does not exist. He is trying to get a Michigan woman to tell him where to find her husband’s pontoon boat.

The bigger the boat, the harder to hide. A few miles from Mr. Henderson’s office is a house that, even in depressed Michigan, would sell for a million dollars. Tied up on the canal in back, just visible from the street, is a 40-foot Silverton yacht. As Mr. Henderson surveyed the area the other day, something nagged at his memory.

Finally he remembered: “I’ve taken this boat before.” Owners of repossessed boats have a few weeks to redeem them, and this fellow had availed himself of the opportunity. Now, a few years later, he was in trouble again. Mr. Henderson shrugged. “I took it before, I’ll take it again. After I take it a few more times, he’ll be eligible for a Christmas card. One guy, I took his boat four times.”

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I did, last year in San Diego, right behind the Convention Center. You think that the comic book geeks live in fantasy? Check out the would-be Captain Steubings and their power boat power trips.

These aren't people using boats for a living or for necessity. They're freaking insane. They throw their empty beer cans overboard, they churn the water, and they act like they own the ocean.