Last week I was up in New Brunswick, Canada and got a chance to try out a novel bear-viewing attraction. At the Little, Big Bear Safari, hunting guide, Richard Goguen has built a tower on his family land to watch black bears. The success of the operation makes me think that bear-viewing has some future as a way people in rural areas can make money off bears without hunting them -- as long as a few safety concerns are covered.

Goguen built a road into land that once belonged to his grandfather in Acadieville, in northeast New Brunswick, about 150 miles east of Maine. In the late '90s Richard worked for a season guiding American bear hunters, but didn't like the killing. One day he took a hunter who had already been successful out just to take pictures of bear and moose. Both had more fun doing that than hunting and Richard decided then he wanted to start a bear-viewing operation.

Richard built a trial six-person tower a decade ago, then a 15-person giant tree house in 2000. Having to turn people away, he expanded again last year to a two-story, two-staircase, wood and metal mesh tower that includes a wood-burning stove. They offer the tour every night and have his friendly forest ranger neighbors fill in when he wants a night off.

Richard and his wife Vivienne, a multi-lingual Acadian couple, get busloads of German tourists and visitors from all over the world. The neighbors are proud so many people come to see their natural wonder.

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.