How to Sell A Haunted House
More than any other holiday - including, we would argue, Christmas - Halloween is a visual holiday. It exists for no other reason than to look scary, or cool, or - as is increasingly the trend - sexy. Without the images of black cats, vampire bats and Jack o' lanterns, the charms of Halloween fall mostly flat.
Perhaps no traditional Halloween visual is more time-honored than the haunted house. A cottage industry has cropped up around turning empty warehouses or buildings into October cash cows. Even more prevalent are the urban myths, the neighborhood legends that surround a property or two in every city. Maybe something very bad happened there. Maybe it's just shrouded in trees and creaks in the wind. Regardless, it's abandoned and, well... people talk.
Unfortunately, no matter what the real story is, there's probably a Realtor desperately trying to get rid of the property on behalf of a frustrated or indifferent family. Whether you believe in haunts or not, when it comes to a property's value, perception is very often reality, at least when it comes to the bottom line.
So what's a Realtor and homeowner to do?
Interestingly, HGTV's "Front Door" real estate site tackled the situation. The article, "How to Sell a Haunted House" might seem like a joke, but there is actually some pertinent information here on how to deal with a property that has, at best, a urban myth problem. At worst, you may one day list a property where something really bad happened that everybody knows about.
It's not cut and dry, and if something has happened there, disclosure may be an issue. From the article:
"More than 20 states, such as Pennsylvania and New Jersey, have laws that say agents and sellers won't be held liable for failing to mention that 20 years earlier a wife stabbed her husband in the home's master bedroom. In some cases, like in Oklahoma, it gets complicated because you have to ask in writing if the house is haunted or psychologically affected in another way, and then in writing, the seller is required to furnish the facts of the matter. Other states, however, do have laws that require that potential prospects be notified."
Other tips from the article:
If it's merely rumor stigmatizing the house, tackle it head on.
There actually are people who will come and rid your house of ghosts (link in the article).
Changing the address may help (this was done in the instance of one high-profile murder from the 1990s).
If all else fails, money speaks louder than ghosts. Slash the price.
The entire article is a wonderful, interesting read. Read it now.
A second article, from nvar.com, gets a little more into the weeds about what needs to be disclosed and what doesn't when it comes to what the author calls "stigmatizing events" like a murder or suicide, or even whether a previous inhabitant had an infectious disease.
The upshot, in brief: Even if you aren't required to disclose these things, you ARE required to be honest with potential buyers and clients. The entire article is worth a read. Maybe you'll never face this situation, but you're better safe than sorry.
Mwahahahaha!
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