House Could Be Dead Giveaway

If Bob Fanning dies in the next decade, the buyer of his Wisconsin home—listed at $498,900—will get a half-million dollar payday. That’s because the 69-year-old plans to make the new owner the beneficiary of a 10-year life-insurance policy, a carrot he hopes will sweeten the deal in a tough real-estate market, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

The "outside-the-box thinker," whose parents and sister died before age 79, thinks it’s "a hell of an incentive," and is willing to share his medical records with the buyer. Fanning isn't worried about foul play, which lawyers say would void the deal. As for his wife? "I'm always in awe of how he comes up with a different way of doing things," she said. (More housing crisis stories.)