CHAPTER 12
THE VACANT HOME Every seller wants to ensure the property sells quickly for the highest price possible. Naturally, most homeowners/ sellers are caught up with critical commitments like meeting ongoing mortgage payments (sometimes two of them), bearing maintenance expenditures, paying the insurance, andmanaging other carrying costs. The need to shoulder the burden of these expenses and commitments means the faster the vacant home sells, the greater the relief for the seller.
Vacant homes pose real estate challenges and offer opportunity 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.
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