more attractive proposition for the buyer. This is staging a house for the market at its best (as previously seen in the chapters on Staging). The advantages of vacating the house before starting the home marketing and sales process include presenting a better staging opportunity, more frequent showings, easier upkeep to curb appeal and a pristine interior, and less burden on the seller’s time and effort. The second type of vacant home sale situation is where the home is truly unoccupied — no one lives there, and perhaps no one has lived there for some time. Maybe the house is inherited property, was assumed for a debt, or was an investment that didn’t pan out. Vacant home sales can be due to a bank foreclosure or short sale in which the lender accepts less than the mortgage balance. It’s these bank-owned properties, sometimes called Real Estate-Owned, or REOs, that tend to be “problem homes” in maintenance and sales.
NOT LIVING IN YOUR HOME MAKES IT EASIER TO SELL
Statistics from a 2015 survey indicate that homes expiring from their primary listings were generally homes lived in by tenants or the homeowners themselves. There were 400 homes listed on the market as “owner occupied” in the survey. Approximately 36% of these homes’ listing expired, versus the 29% that were unoccupied. Therefore, the numbers show that owner-occupied homes will take more time to sell. Some real estate professionals profess that it’s 10 times easier to sell a house that the seller is not currently living in than an owner- occupied home. There are several advantages to this approach.
Buyer agents’ showings could be increased, as it’s usually more
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