This neighborhood house was vacated by its occupants in March 2011. (I took this picture when they were in the process of moving out.) They had bought the house in 2007 for about $400,000 (way overpriced!) and could not afford the payments. My wife and I were glad to see them go, as one of the kids attracted the wrong type of people when the parents were not around.

The previous owner had done a lot of work to clean up the house before it went on the market. The people to whom he sold it either did not know how to take care of it or didn't bother. They turned this pristine home into a dump. The arrangement of the living room curtains only hints at the condition of the interior. The curtains looked like that for at least a year.

What the photo does not show is the condition of the interior, which was abysmal. The real estate agent, with whom I talked at length on two occasions, gave me a "damage tour" and a "cleaned up tour." The damage tour was a shocker. Carpeting was uniformly dirty and damaged. Walls were dirty and damaged---I could not imagine how so much dirt got on the walls and stayed there. Various plumbing fixtures were missing. There was water damage somewhere (forgot where). The kitchen was filthy. The deck out back looked shabby. Gutters had not been cleaned in a long time and had turned into gardens. The master bedroom door had no doorknob, just a deadbolt lock---no doubt that related to the troublesome kid.

By July 2011, the house had been cleaned up and repaired, looked nice again, and was for sale for about $210,000. In September a young couple moved in. They are very nice.