at the same time. Paradoxically, empty real estate can be easier to sell (e.g., it can be owner-unoccupied and beautifully staged) and, at the same time, it’s harder to sell, because it could be a piece of property left to you in a favorite aunt’s estate that has been neglected for years. Houses become vacant for various reasons, such as marriage, divorce, job relocation, death, or myriad other life events. The house could be in superb, average, or shabby condition. It might be updated or old-fashioned. It might be starkly empty and beautifully painted in neutral colors throughout, or it might be crammed with old furniture and previous owners’ possessions and have zebra-striped wallpaper in the kitchen and bathrooms. Vacant home sales come in two types. One is where the sellers have decided to vacate the home they currently live in and reside elsewhere, while the house is sold, such as an apartment, rental home, or residence hotel. They do this to make a home showing a 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-
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