I've been doing my best to help my mom ready her parents' house for sale. It could be going better, honestly. The roof leaks in a few places, and the property floods. There's a buried oil tank and a dubious septic situation, not all of the plumbing or electrical wiring seems reliable, and generally the whole house has the sad, run-down atmosphere of a place where old people became unable to keep up with basic maintenance and were taken advantage by substandard caregivers and tradespeople. A few prospective buyers have mentioned that the house "feels like somebody died there," or "seems haunted."
Now, what would you do in this situation? Would you patch the roof, repair the sump pump to get rid of standing water in the cellar, give the walls and carpets a thorough cleaning, and brighten up the dingy spaces with a quick coat of paint? Or would you fixate with single-minded intensity on the notion of ghosts?
Perhaps you have inferred where my mom's relatives' priorities lie.
My mom's sister and my older cousin are convinced that my grandfather - who did, in fact, die in the home - is now haunting it. They are looking into arranging an exorcism. However, one of my uncles believes the house is being occupied by the spirit of their deceased brother, whom he feels is unable to rest in peace as long as he is buried next to my grandfather. He wants to disinter my uncle's remains and have them relocated. So everyone is fighting about ghosts, instead of making necessary repairs to the property.
That said, if anyone were going to return from beyond the grave to sow discord and fuck things up for the family, it would be my grandfather. He was the scariest, creepiest, most horrifying and all-around worst human being I've ever met in my life. I can't wait until this project is over and the property is out of the family's hands.