Vegas
04-04-2008, 11:27 AM
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-040408-house-insurance-webapr05,0,1206319.story
Whoever buys Bob Fanning's house will hope he dies. And Fanning is fine with that.
Trying to separate his 5,600 square-foot western Wisconsin home from others in the real estate glut, Fanning, 69, has come up with an odd incentive: The buyer will be named beneficiary to a 10-year, $500,000 term life insurance policy. If Fanning dies in that time, the purchase price of the Whitehall, Wis., home — listed at $498,900 — is covered.
"He's an outside-the-box thinker, no question about it," said his Realtor, Wayne Peters.
Most younger sellers couldn't plausibly use such a sales tactic, Peters said, but when someone is 69 "the odds are getting to the point where people realize that there's a significant chance that they could collect."
Whoever buys Bob Fanning's house will hope he dies. And Fanning is fine with that.
Trying to separate his 5,600 square-foot western Wisconsin home from others in the real estate glut, Fanning, 69, has come up with an odd incentive: The buyer will be named beneficiary to a 10-year, $500,000 term life insurance policy. If Fanning dies in that time, the purchase price of the Whitehall, Wis., home — listed at $498,900 — is covered.
"He's an outside-the-box thinker, no question about it," said his Realtor, Wayne Peters.
Most younger sellers couldn't plausibly use such a sales tactic, Peters said, but when someone is 69 "the odds are getting to the point where people realize that there's a significant chance that they could collect."