With the recent downturn in the real estate market, a haunted house could become an even harder sell. Haunted houses usually aren't explicitly described as haunted, they are typically given the more pleasant and scientific sounding term of "psychologically impacted".
Psychologically impacted doesn't just mean haunted. It is a real estate term used to describe any house that will be considered a hard sale due to a death, murder, drug lab, suicide, or even if the person who lived there had a long history of violent mental illness. People are superstitious, and these houses are 50% more likely to stay on the market and sell for a reduced price than other real estate; even if no unexplained phenomenon has ever been reported.
All states require that psychologically impacted property must be disclosed during the viewing, but not all states require that you must disclose a haunting. Houses which were former drug labs, which might possibly still contain chemical residue, must be disclosed under these laws, but other states have different guidelines as to disclosing the stigma of death unless it was caused by AIDS, which could be viewed as discriminatory.
Secrecy only feeds fear, so most reputable real estate agencies ask that sellers disclose any strange happenings up front to potential buyers. In New York, it is illegal to sell a haunted house without disclosure, so you could end up with a large liability if you don't know the laws for your state.
Precedent was set by a now famous case in the real estate world wherein the sale of a Victorian mansion was contested after the Stambovsky family made an earnest payment of $32,500 on a $650,000 home which resembled the TV home of the Munsters. Even though the house was decidedly spooky at first sight, the couple did not know about its truly weird reputation. The seller had promoted the home as haunted and had even had a write up done on it for Reader's Digest and featured it on a haunted walking tour of the city. When the sellers chose to sell the house they stopped promoting it as haunted.
While the Mr. Stambovsky was not particularly worried about the homes reputation, his wife was deeply concerned, and the couple tried to back out of the deal. The owner refused to cancel the sale or return the down payment. The Stambovsky's took the seller to court and lost, only to win with a narrow margin or 3-2 in appellate court, after the court found that by deliberately fostering the belief that the house was haunted, the buyer had to by law disclose.
Why hadn't the couple known about the houses reputation if it had been featured in so many haunted tours and books? They were from out of town.
Most haunted houses on the market have very little in the way of strange events. More than likely, it is limited to electrical goings on, or the occasional door opening and closing by itself, possibly even cold spots that do not warm up even if a heater is placed nearby. Due to this, they do not have the"psychologically impacted" status, and many buyers find themselves sharing their house with a ghost.
To find out the disclosure laws for psychologically impacted property in your sate, visit the Haunted Real Estate.
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7 comment(s) on this page. Add your own comment below.
I would love to find a haunted house to live in. How could I find out who's selling them in Alabama?
Becareful Beth... it could be something you dont want living with. I read a book about a nurse's experience and they delt with rancid smells through out the house and she had what she called "sufficating nightmares". She said they happened often but she knew she was awake durring these (and would stay up for a while afterwards) and couldnt wake her husband up sleeping soundly beside her, and later found out her 13 year old daughter experienced the same, but not as often. Her daughter also woke one night to her glass gerbal cage fall from the ceiling and land on her bed. thankfully she had time to roll onto the floor. the gerbals fate was not so lucky. I know, trust me im damn near obsesed with the paranormal i have everything from evps and damn good photos of everything from countless different colored orbs to misty human like aparitions as well as animal like. and i myself am intrigued by living in a house with "abnormal activity", please just becareful. not everything is doors that open and close by themselves and footsteps and all the good stuff. i just dont want either of us getting exactly what we ask for :) take care
Beth, be careful what you wish for...I have lived in three different "haunted" houses, and they were all very different experiences. It can ruin your life - or, make it a living hell. Alabama has a lot of historic homes for sale, a good percentage probably haunted. Ask around. Google "haunted real esate" and look up your area. Contact your local ghost hunters society/paranormal research group.
It really isn't as much "fun" as you would think, living in an "already occupied/haunted" house.
hum... y dont real estate peple let in us to have a look to see if its haunted?????
Anyone who works in a hospital, any hospital, has seen enough goings-on. Go work at a hospital to get your "haunted house" fix. But don't ever live in a haunted building.
My colleagues and I could write a big book about all the experiences, some captured on photographs. Snoring heard in a room on an abandoned hospital floor, with nothing in it but a mattress. Security opened the door and the snoring stopped. A nude patient laying on a perfectly made bed, seen on the monitor. A nurse sent into the room to see what is going on. She sees nothing on the bed, waving to us at the monitor, signaling, there is no one on the bed while we all see the nude lady laying on the made bed right behind her. And hundreds more stories just like that.
I have to agree with HGH, if you want to have a paranormal experience just go to a hospital.
I used to work with mentally challenged adults in a residential setting. One client I worked with lived in a building that had been remodeled from a hosptial to an apartment building. I dreaded the times I'd have to use the elevator in that building, I never knew which floor I'd end up on. I'd push the button for the second floor and end up on the third floor (with no one around once the doors opened) or in the basement. One time the elevator went up to the third floor, stopped, went back down to the first foor and back up to the third floor without stopping to open the doors. The lady who was on the elevator with me, and I couldn't wait to get off that thing. Why not use the stairs you ask? Did it once and wouldn't do it again. I felt someone rush past me and bump me, but no one was there. I felt I'd rather take my chances with the elevator.
There were so many stories floating around that building, it would be hard to know which were fiction and which ones actually happened. All I know is that there was something happening with the elevator.
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