Reality Check: When visiting run-down houses, we may be visiting our future.

I just got back from what seemed like a very long trip to visit my extended family in Syracuse, NY. My grandfather, the only person I'll probably ever personally know whose intellect rivaled Einstein, is very ill and not much longer for this Earth. It is sad to see this once vibrant man, who still rode his bike to the local library up until last year, now wasting away in a hospital style bed, unable to get up and sometimes unaware of where he is. He has lived a long and prosperous 93 years, though, and you can't ask for much more than that in this life.

While we were in Syracuse we stayed at my grandparent's house. Camped there is probably the more appropriate term. My grandfather is now located at my Aunt's house 30 minutes away (she is caring for him in his final days/months/years), and my grandmother is not able to stay in the house alone, so she has permanently moved into an apartment that is handicapped accessible for her limited mobility.

I was completely amazed at the house that greeted me when we arrived. I have been in some real junker houses in my line of business, and some of them have even been occupied at the time, and I'm always amazed by the conditions these human beings can allow themselves to live in. I do my best not to judge others, but I can't help but wonder sometimes if they are aware of their deplorable surroundings. Maybe my grandparent's house wasn't quite as bad as a few inhabited ones that I've seen, but it would probably make the short list.

My grandfather is a very proud man, one who can not even entertain the idea of others doing something to help him. He built this house entirely with his own two hands (he was an engineer and thought it was a fun project) and probably would shudder to think of anyone else touching what he worked so hard to build. Family members have offered time and again to help take care of him and the house, but he'd have none of that talk, we might "mess something up." And though he is not poor by any determination, he was too proud to pay someone, even a skilled tradesman, to work on HIS house. As such the maintenance on the house has been nil for nearly 10 years, and the house is no longer fit for any long term inhabitants other than the mice that already reside there. A house that once showed incredible pride of craftsmanship is now the eyesore of the neighborhood.

Staying there certainly gave me a new perspective on the run down houses I'm sure to look at in the future. I would never have thought that a member of my own family would be living in any sort of comparable home to some that I've seen, but the reality is they were all along. It is entirely possible that many of us will end up in similar situations at some time in our lives. We can not predict the future nor what our attitudes or reasoning are. If my grandfather had been shown a picture of his future house 50 years ago when he started building it, then perhaps he would have had a different mind on keeping it maintained over the years. Or maybe the same thing would have happened since it is difficult to change human nature.

All in all, I've come away from this trip with a new insight to how some of these properties come to end up in investor's possession. Most people don't plan for the inability to maintain your surroundings, terminal illness or other hard times and seemingly hard choices that may come upon us, so remember with me that the people in these junker houses we go out to buy may one day be someone we love, or even ourselves.