According to data from LendingTree, more than 5.6 million housing units currently sit empty in the nation’s 50 largest metro areas. Soon, many of the people who own those vacant houses will be required to register them with local government agencies -- if they are not already.

The so-called vacant property registration movement stems from the 2008 financial crisis, when many strapped homeowners abandoned their houses, allowing them to go to seed and into foreclosure. Even after lenders took ownership of these houses, they often allowed them to sit empty rather than list them at fire-sale prices.

As a result, many deserted properties became eyesores in otherwise thriving communities: Lawns became overgrown. Windows were broken. Utilities were cut off. Sometimes, squatters moved in.

ATTOM Data Solutions says that in this year's third quarter, about 223,000 so-called zombie houses -- ones that were abandoned before the foreclosure process began -- were moving through foreclosure. That may sound high, but the number is merely a blip in the country's total housing stock.

“After some worries about a rise in abandoned homes following the end of the COVID-era foreclosure clampdown,” said ATTOM CEO Rob Barber in a recent news release, abandoned properties “remain an anomaly throughout most of the country. ... (F)ewer owners are simply walking away from their properties like so many did after the Great Recession of the late 2000s.”

Nevertheless, more and more municipalities are enacting ordinances to account for empty dwellings and to make sure their owners -- individuals and banks alike -- actively maintain and manage their properties. And now the practice has spilled over to include holiday homes.

Making sure houses don’t become a pimple on the local landscape is usually the stated reason for these regulations. But what goes unsaid is that registrations are a source of revenue -- sometimes a huge source -- for cash-starved jurisdictions.

Rates vary widely: Henderson, Nevada, charges a whopping $848 to register (and annually renew) a short-term rental property, while Nags Head, North Carolina, charges a paltry $25.

If you fail to follow the law, the charges can quickly escalate. In the Village of North Palm Beach, Florida, failing to register a rental can result in civil penalties, such as court costs and administrative fees. In Sarasota, Florida, applications cost $500 and renewals cost $350 -- but missing the deadline to register adds a $200 late fee to the tally.

The District of Columbia's policies may be the toughest to swallow, though. Once you register a vacant house with the district, your tax rate jumps from 85 cents per $100 of appraised value to $5 per the same. One attorney told me the district is known to check water and electricity bills in an effort to find unregistered vacant properties. If they catch a scofflaw, or if a place is considered blighted, the tax rate jumps to $10 per $100 of assessed value.

The message is clear: Find out what your local rules are, and follow them.

If you own a vacant house, or rent out your house on a seasonal or irregular basis, find out if your local jurisdiction requires you to register it. Also, you may be in breach of your mortgage by allowing a property to sit vacant, and could be violating the occupancy terms of your insurance policy. So check those rules, too.

Unfortunately, “registration requirements change frequently,” writes Jeff Connell, a senior vice president at property preservation company MCS, in an April post on MortgagePoint.com. So you have to be on your toes.

Connell keeps his fingertips on new and/or changing local laws, and he says property owners should follow his lead.

Not only must owners make sure they keep up on registration laws, but they also must ensure their vacant properties are maintained in accordance with specific local requirements and standards: The grass must be kept to a certain length, for example, and the flower beds must be free from weeds high enough to overtake the shrubs. Local rules may require you to rake the leaves, clean up any storm debris, repair broken windows and fences -- and, above all, make sure no people have occupied your property without your permission.

Connell also suggests trying to build a relationship with the agencies that enforce local codes. He writes that doing so “can help with compliance, and even negotiate the severity of fines if an issue does arise.”

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the sequel to the 1988 Tim Burton horror comedy, raked in $110 million during its opening weekend in September. But how much would it cost to buy the Connecticut house where most of the movies' action takes place?

There's no price tag to check because it's not a real house -- just a facade built in nearby Vermont, coupled with a series of interior sets. But a just-for-fun listing prices the fictional house around $461,000. The 2,000-square-foot house would feature three bedrooms, two baths, a large kitchen, a one-car garage -- and a gateway to the afterlife in the attic, occupied by two friendly ghosts.

The fictional listing sparked a bit of interest in other famous movie and TV locations, and what they might draw in today’s market. Here are a few Hollywood-worthy properties of note.

Based on Google data, Harry Potter’s first home is among the most popular movie-location searches. To be clear, this isn't the Dursleys' house on Privet Drive, where Harry grew up. Rather, Google searches racked up for a house in the fictional town of Godric's Hollow, where Harry lived as an infant with his parents before He Who Must Not Be Named swept in.

In real life, Godric's Hollow is Lavenham, England, and the Potter residence is De Vere House, which dates back to the 14th century. It was on the market several years ago for about 1 million pounds, but is now run as a bed-and-breakfast. Potter fans can find it on Airbnb.

In "Full House" and in real life, the Tanner home is located at 1709 Broderick Street in San Francisco. It was home to nine people and a dog on the show, but the place has only four bedrooms and 3.5 baths. That’s a lot of doubling up! If you've got deep enough pockets, you can buy this piece of sitcom history, currently listed at $6.5 million.

The home from "Mrs. Doubtfire" is also in San Francisco, at 2640 Steiner St. in the Pacific Heights neighborhood. The 3,300-square-foot, three-level Victorian was built in 1893 and has four bedrooms and four baths. It sold for $4.1 million in 2016, and would likely fetch more than $5 million today.

Another cinematic icon is the "Home Alone" mansion at 671 Lincoln Ave. in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, Illinois. The 1921 Georgian-style colonial where 8-year-old Kevin McAllister (played by Macaulay Culkin) was left to his own devices at Christmastime is currently on the market for $5.25 million. The house has five bedrooms and six baths.

The house from "The Brady Bunch" is another expensive family hangout. Located at 11222 Dilling St. in North Hollywood, California, the place was used only for exterior shots. Nevertheless, the house sold in 2023 for $3.2 million, according to Zillow. Reportedly the second-most photographed house in the country (after the White House), the Bradys' joint was built in 1959 and has been remodeled on HGTV.

Of course, not all made-for-TV residences are houses. Some are apartments, such as the "Friends" unit in New York City. Exterior shots place the apartment at 90 Bedford St. in the West Village. Roommates Monica and Rachel (Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston) rented the two-bedroom, one-bath apartment for a whopping $200 per month -- thanks to decades of rent control. (The unit had been Monica's grandmother's.) Today, monthly rent for a similarly sized unit would be more than $5,000.

Carrie Bradshaw’s place in "Sex and the City" is in an unnamed building at 66 Perry St., also in the West Village. It is doubtful that Sarah Jessica Parker's columnist character could afford today’s estimated rent of $6,000. Nor could she afford to buy the unit, which would be worth an estimated $1.4 million if the building went condo.

Not all famous houses are worth nearly that much, though. Take the "Breaking Bad" house at 3828 Piermont Dr. in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The place where Walter White (Bryan Cranston) cooked up meth is worth just $352,300 on today’s market, according to Zillow.

Since this is Halloween weekend, let’s end with a look at a famous horror house. "The Amityville Horror" took place in the New York town of the same name, but the movie house is located in Toms River, New Jersey. The four-bedroom property sold last year for $1.5 million.

Sometimes, homebuyers are hesitant to pull the trigger. They might love the house they found -- it’s priced right and mortgage rates are coming down -- but they just can’t decide whether to move forward.

So what can sellers do to sweeten the pot a bit -- to get buyers to make an offer and sign a contract?

In previous down markets, sellers have offered all kinds of incentives to seal the deal with hesitant buyers. They’ve thrown in trips to Europe, island cruises, even fancy sports cars. And they are likely to do so again, at least in the luxury sector.

Those are nice, to be sure. But let’s get real: They hold little sway with the typical buyer. (Besides, the insurance on those sports cars can be just as breathtaking as a drive down Pacific Coast Highway with the top down.)

On a more practical note, here are some incentives and concessions sellers might want to consider.

-- Buy-downs. The majority of builders now offer to cover the cost of lowering a buyer’s mortgage rate for the first year or two. And individual sellers can do the same. It works!

At a cost to you of roughly 1% of the sales price, you can cut the buyer’s rate by 0.25% for the first 12 months. Pay a little more, and you can trim their rate further, and for longer periods.

According to an analysis by Zonda Home, half of all builders are willing to buy rates down to as low as 4%. Whether you need to go that far -- or can afford to -- is for you to decide. To determine the actual costs, sit down with your agent or mortgage broker and run the numbers.

-- Assumable. If you have a low-rate mortgage, find out if you can pass it on to your buyer. Loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration and backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs can be assumed by another borrower, and so can some other mortgages.

Check with your lender to ascertain whether your loan can be taken over. If it can, advertise that fact. After all, a mortgage at 3%, 4% or even 5% is extremely attractive in today’s market.

-- Inspection. Savvy sellers have their homes inspected -- and get any flaws fixed -- before putting them on the market. And savvy buyers will want their own inspections before moving forward. So why not offer to pay the cost of the buyer’s inspection?

-- Repairs. If the buyer's inspector turns up some real problems your guy missed, offer to pay for at least part of the repairs. Of course, if the second exam turns up nothing, you are off the hook.

-- Warranty. Most buyers now expect the house to come with a seller-paid warranty that lasts for a year. When the year is up, the warranty company will badger the new owner about the benefits of renewing -- but by then, they’ll have to pay the freight. So throwing in an extra year or two of coverage could be meaningful.

-- Speed. If you want to get to the settlement table quickly, offer a credit at closing as an incentive. On the other hand, if the buyer wants to proceed more slowly, allowing them the time they need may make a difference.

-- Closing costs. Buyers will have to pay a slew of settlement fees and charges that add up to anywhere from 5% to 7% of the sales price. Sellers will have to pay some fees, too. But if you offer to take some of the burden off your buyer’s shoulders, it could be just what the doctor ordered.

-- Commission. Nowadays, buyers are obligated to pay their agents, just like you are obligated to pay yours. So consider paying the buyer's agent on their behalf (which is the way it used to be, anyway).

-- HOA costs. If your community is run by an HOA, think about paying the buyer’s dues for a year or longer. That will help ease their first year’s costs, which can be substantial, especially for a first-time owner. Some homebuyers don’t even realize they're becoming default members of the HOA and that they have to pay dues -- whether or not they use the golf course, pool or exercise room.

-- Personal property. If the buyer has an eye on something in the house that you had planned to take with you -- say, your favorite leather couch -- consider letting it go. If they want it bad enough, it may be enough to seal the deal.

Remember, in real estate, everything is negotiable. Everything!

-- Moving. Offer to pay some or all of the buyer’s moving costs, which can run several thousand dollars. Moving from one residence to another is daunting enough without worrying about how you are going to pay for it.

In short, any cost you can take off the buyer’s shoulders is a good thing.