Boo! Buying a haunted house
When you buy a house, you should always get a home inspection before signing any final papers. But, there are a few things that a home inspection could miss, no matter how thorough; one of those things being ghosts.
Whether you believe in them or not, haunted house stories have been popular subjects of books, movies and the mass media since the beginning of time. But when people think of ghosts, they normally do not think about how a haunting could affect the value and sale of a home.
A July 31, 2006 article by Holden Lewis of Bankrate.com, “Want to buy a haunted house?” looks into one couple’s journey through buying a property full of ghosts.
The Schaibles are a couple who were looking to buy a 111-year-old Victorian home in New Jersey that reportedly had ghosts. For them, this little tid-bit was the decision maker in them purchasing the home.
“‘We were walking out of the attic,’ Schaible says, ‘and my wife said, 'Any ghosts?' And the lady said, 'Well, yeah.' We were like, 'Cool, tell us about it.' The owner didn't go into much detail. She said people had seen and heard things over the years. ‘We said we kind of think of it as a positive thing,’ Schaible says. The Schaibles decided then and there to buy the eight-bedroom house, a fixer-upper built in 1890. They paid the asking price.”
Most people assume that reports of ghosts and hauntings would decrease the value of a home, and even make it harder to sell. But for some unique buyers, ghost stories could actually prompt them to go after the house more aggressively.
“Cindy Neivert, the real estate agent with Burgdorff ERA who brought the house to the Schaibles' attention, says the presence of "ghosties" can add to or detract from a home's value. It depends on the buyer and what the house will be used for. Someone who wants to convert a big house into a bed-and-breakfast inn might see marketing value in ghost stories as long as they're not too scary. Adventurous buyers such as the Schaibles might not be spooked. But ghost stories might scare away the squeamish.”
Ghosts are one thing, but murder and suicide are in a completely different ballpark in the real estate world. Real estate agents are required by law to disclose if a murder took place on the premises. Many sensationalized or high-profile murder locations in homes are called “stigmatized” properties and these usually affect the sale price of the home.
“Infamous deaths can make houses especially hard to sell. Think of Nicole Brown Simpson's townhouse or the house where 39 members of Heaven's Gate killed themselves to join a spaceship hiding behind the Comet Hale-Bopp or the house where Charles Manson's followers killed actress Sharon Tate and four other people. Randall Bell, a property appraiser for Bell Anderson & Sanders of Laguna Beach, Calif., specializes in
‘stigmatized’ properties. Often a property is stigmatized because of an environmental or structural problem -- earthquake damage, contaminated soil, a faulty foundation. But some properties are stigmatized because something horrible happened there.”
It is not really known how much of an affect ghost stories and hauntings have on the price or length of time it takes to sell a home. It all depends on the potential buyer. Some may think having a “Casper” around would prove for some fun times and interesting stories, while others could go running and screaming from the open house.
