LEWISTON – They sit in rows on the lot, more than a dozen shiny motor homes, travel trailers, boats and trucks waiting for new owners. They were once expensive toys for people who thought they could afford them. Before it turned out they couldn’t.

Prospective customers pull into the lot regularly.

Walk around. Kick the tires.

Sometimes buy.

The lot’s highly visible on Sabattus Street, one of the busiest roads in Lewiston. It’s a good location for a used car business.

Or Maine Bank Repossessions, an unusual new side business Northeast Bank has set up to sell the vehicles it’s repossessed.

“Right out of the gate I’ve had a slew of phone calls,” said Mike Belanger, the consultant Northeast hired to run Maine Bank Repossessions.

Banks and credit unions typically sell their repossessed vehicles at auction. Sometimes, if they only have a couple, they’ll tape a “for sale” sign in the window and leave them in a branch parking lot, hoping someone will check them out.

“What we tended to do was take it to an auction and say ‘just move it,'” said Marcel Blais, senior vice president and chief operating officer for Northeast Bank.

But in this bleak economy, repossessions are increasingly common and vehicles are demanding less and less at each auction.

Northeast Bank saw an uptick in repossessions in the fall, mostly of boats, RVs and other seasonal toys people decided they didn’t want to try to hold onto through the winter. The Lewiston-based bank wanted a way to clear its inventory, and it wanted to make more money than it could at auction.

Bank officials asked Belanger, former co-owner of Lake City Exports, a used car business, for help. Among Belanger’s suggestions: Sell the vehicles on eBay. Advertise them in classifieds. Put them on display.

The bank borrowed the Val’s Drive-In lot for the winter and set up the lot a month ago. It began advertising – mostly a “Maine Bank Repossessions” banner stuck on the side of one of the larger motor homes – two weeks ago.

It’s since sold three vehicles off the lot. A fourth deal is slated to close this week.

“The word of mouth thing helps a lot,” Belanger said.

The bank still sends its cars to auction, but most of the seasonal toys have landed on the Sabattus Street lot. Fifteen vehicles are displayed there now, including a 2002 Gulf Stream Conquest motor home for $24,995 and a 2007 Denali travel trailer for $15,995

Showings and sales are by appointment. Northeast offers financing.

Such bank repossession lots are not unheard of, but they are unusual. Of the half dozen area banks and credit unions surveyed by the Sun Journal Monday, none ran their own car lot. A couple said they wouldn’t mind trying it.

So far, the lot’s working for Northeast Bank.

And it’s working for customers looking for a deal.

That 2007 Denali travel trailer for $15,995 on the lot would sell for $26,000 new.

“And it’s virtually new,” Belanger said.

The sales are also good news for the borrowers who defaulted on their loans. Often, they’re required to make up the difference between what they owe and what the vehicle sells for. So the more the bank can sell it for, the less the borrower may need to pay.

Northeast plans to keep running the lot at least through the winter. When Val’s Drive-In needs the space back this spring, bank officials will decide whether they want to keep Maine Bank Repossessions going or close up shop.

“We’ll see what the economy brings,” Blais said.