This Old House

Seeing an empty house bothers me. Why is it vacant? Has the former resident built a new dwelling, casting the old one aside like an old pair of shoes? Maybe the owner now resides in a nursing home or assisted living, and they keep their old home for deeply sentimental reasons. It seems a waste for an old home to remain empty, slowly deteriorating because no one cares for it any more.

Granddad or Aunt Mabel's old house can seem like money in the bank, just waiting for the kids to get around to selling it. And, of course, there continue to be young families looking for their first home. It seems to me that these buyers and sellers are not connecting. It likely has to do with price.

The house sits vacant, hopefully accruing in value. Meanwhile, those looking for a new home pass it by. Why pay that much money for a used home, when a new one can be built with just the right features? If the seller really needed the money, they would be aggressive in marketing the house, but usually they are content to sit and wait for a buyer who will pay their asking price.

So the house sits vacant, often for years.

It would take a mighty selfless individual to drastically cut the price on an empty house so that someone else might get a bargain, forgo building a new house, and bring the old home back to life. Who would sell a house at thirty percent of its value, to help someone else avoid a huge mortgage? Many would forever dwell on the fact that they'd lost seventy percent on the sale, instead of the idea that they gave a young family a helping hand.

Old houses continue to sit vacant, deteriorating. Many sit until a bulldozer pushes them over.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth not rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-20