Got Ghosts? How to Sell a Haunted House You may laugh at the notion of spooks and spirits, but when it comes to selling houses, its a real issue. And it comes up more than you might expect. Heres what you need to know. Haunted houses are fun to visit. But what if you’re putting a “For Sale” sign in the yard of a home that has ghostly “squatters” from the past? How much should real estate practitioners divulge to a potential buyer? And what happens if your spirit shows up during one of your showings? “Haunted properties fall within the category of stigmatized properties, or real estate that is not defective in any physical manner, but due to psychological or emotional factors may have a reduced value. Among the situations covered under the title of stigmatized is a property that was the site of a murder, suicide, alleged haunting, or other parapsychological phenomenon,” says Steven J.J. Weisman, a Cambridge, Mass., lawyer and college professor who teaches about paranormal disclosures in his business law class at Bentley University. About half of U.S. states have laws that deal with stigmatized properties, but most don’t require sellers to disclose if they have a ghost. For instance, Massachusetts law says property owners do not have to disclose if the property is the “site of an alleged parapsychological or supernatural phenomenon.” If a state doesn’t have a statute that requires disclosure of hauntings, Weisman says sellers don’t necessarily have to spill the beans about spirits that roam the halls. But even if your state doesn’t require you to disclose that you’ve got things going bump in the night, it’s often good customer service that can save a sale. “We don’t have paranormal disclosure laws in our market — however, I always encourage sellers to disclose any factor that may affect the desirability of a property,” says Timothy J. Singer, a practitioner with Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. If you stay tight-lipped and the buyers freak out when they find out a ghost could be living in the closet, they could be able to back out of the sale. “In one well-documented New York case from 1991, the sale was voided due to the seller not informing the buyer of the house’s reputation for being haunted. The same reasoning could also be used in other states if there aren’t clear laws about disclosing paranormal activity,” Weisman says. That’s because in addition to scaring buyers, paranormal activity may lower a property’s value. But in some cases, ghosts and ghouls may also up the price or a property. “Some customers look for homes with an interesting history, as they feel it adds to a property’s character,” Singer says. “Not everyone is bothered by the possibility of spirits hanging around.” PART 2 tomorrow...
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 01:13:36 +0000
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