Investor to sell home, give proceeds to boy after death of parents

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- "To future residents, please take care of this house. It meant the world to me and my parents."

Those are the words James Harris wrote on the inside of the southwest Houston home where he grew up.

His parents, Jim and Kathy, both died suddenly last year.

James lived at the home for a while, but the memories were too painful.

"There are some days that you just want to off yourself to make the pain go away," he explained. "But life sucks, you just have to deal with it and move on because the world won't stop for you."

Then, James got a call from investor Wil Denker.

Denker owns a company that buys and sells distressed homes.

"He didn't have any brothers or sisters or family so we basically just took him on as a client," Denker said. "We had a moving company do his entire move, found him an apartment, and moved him there."

Denker lost his own father last year, so he knows James' pain.

"Whatever proceeds that we get will go to James. And whatever is not enough, doesn't matter, we're going to stay there until he finishes college," Denker said.

It wasn't until a buyer came forward that they noticed the writing on the wall.

"I thought I might as well leave a mark without damaging the house," James said.