The mood was one of gaiety and laughter as we stood
around in a circle, glasses of wine in hand, trying to outdo one another with ghostly real estate tales.

The setting was one of the office parties my broker at that time, regularly held to recognize the office achievements of his sales representatives.
When it came my turn to tell a story, I decided to relay the events that had occurred at an open house I had held at one of my listings the previous weekend.

There was a hush in our small group as I began my story...

On the previous weekend, I had done an open house at a circa mid 1800s home in one of Ontario's oldest towns.

When I had listed the house, the owner, one of the warmest and nicest women in her seventies I have ever known,  told me the story about Edmund, who she was going to dearly miss when she moved.
‘Who is Edmund?’, I asked; thinking him to be a neighbour. 
With a somber look in her eye, she told me in an outright fashion, ‘Edmund is the ghost that lives here in the house and has been here since the day we bought it 30 odd years ago.' 

‘Oh?’ ,  I asked as my eyebrows rose in sincere interest.

‘Yes, he is very mischievous and he and I are friends. He often plays games like flushing the toilet, or moving my papers around from one room to another. ‘ , she said with a twinkle in her eye.

‘Really?’, I exclaimed, thinking to myself that perhaps she was just saying these things to amuse me.  

She then proceeded to tell me about the history of the house, how rumour had it that the original owner, a blacksmith, had hung himself in the woodshed, which was now the family room, in the late 1800s.

She figured Edmund was this blacksmith’s ghost.  She also said that various members of her large extended family had seen Edmund and that his footsteps were often heard walking around the house.

I finished up my paperwork, had her sign all the documents and drove back home to prepare the listing for turning in to my office first thing in the morning.
I didn’t think much more about her story until one grey, wet Sunday in the fall when I was at the property doing an open house. 

Things were very quiet during the first half hour with no prospects turning out in the drizzly rain.
Deciding to go into the living room and read some magazines, I had no sooner sat down when I heard a door open and some footsteps walking across a hall upstairs. 

Suspecting a buyer must have tiptoed by the living room doorway and not known I was here, I decided to go upstairs and investigate.
The second story of the home was not huge, consisting mainly of two bedrooms, a large hallway and a bathroom.

I checked the bathroom and each bedroom, including under the beds and in the closets and, upon  finding no one, I decided I must have been hearing things.

With a bewildered feeling, I returned downstairs and to my spot in the living room where my magazine lay waiting.

I had barely sat back down when I heard the toilet upstairs flush and the loud footsteps above my head once more.
Thoughts of Edmund came to my mind, however I thought to myself  'there is just NO way'.

Surmising that there HAD to be SOMEONE up there, I very quietly snuck back up the stairs.
Pausing at the top landing, I gazed down the hall and towards the open bedroom doors.

Standing very still, I listened for any noises. Nothing.
I checked each wardrobe in the bedroom, under the beds once more, and in the walk-in closet and again checked the bathroom.
No one could be found anywhere.

By now I was beginning to have the sneaking suspicion that Edmund was making his presence known to me.
Feeling a bit foolish, I softly said ‘Hello Edmund.’. 
Then I went back downstairs and finished my reading.

When  the loud footsteps began again upstairs, I ignored them.
On that cold, drizzly fall day, not a single person had attended my open house,  unless you count Edmund, of course.

An agent called me in the last ten minutes and said he was bringing over an offer and asked if he could present it to my seller after the open house.
I told him that would be fine as I knew my seller was coming back as soon as the open house had ended.

As I stood waiting for her in the doorway between the kitchen and the sunroom, I felt a coldness all down one side of my body.
I shivered as I sensed someone standing right next to me.

Moving out of the energy field to escape the uneasy feeling, I felt strong eyes upon me and decided to go outside and wait for my seller to return.
Edmund was getting too close for comfort.

The seller returned, we dealt with the offer, and before leaving I told her I had met Edmund. She seemed quite pleased with this and told me this meant that he liked me.

As I finished my story, I noticed how round and amazed my peers eyes had become.
Since we were a group of close friends and watched out for each other’s interests, one of them asked if I had told our broker about this.
No, I said. I didn’t think I needed to. 
She replied that he would be very interested in hearing this story. I felt rather embarrassed and did not want to tell him. Unfortunately, right at that moment, he approached our group and asked ‘What’s up ladies?’

My friend announced ‘Jo has a story to tell you.’.  Well, I guess I now had no choice but to relay the story to him.
Upon hearing the story, he proceeded to ask me if I had told the buyer’s agent who had brought the offer on the property about this. ‘No', I replied, 'I didn’t think I had to.’

‘You most certainly do have to disclose this to the buyer’s representative', he said.

He then told us that a few years previous, a  local brokerage had been sued for not disclosing the facts or knowledge of a haunted house that one of his agents had listed. 
The house was known to be haunted and no one had told the buyers or their agent about this.
The buyers moved in and a succession of very frightening things had occurred.  Eventually they found out that the house was known to be haunted and they proceeded to sue the listing brokerage.

The listing brokerage had lost that lawsuit.

Office policy now dictated that we MUST disclose when one of our listings is known to be haunted to the buyer’s representatives and to potential buyers. 
In my case, it turned out ok. I called the buyer’s representative and informed him of the possibility of a ghost.

It turned out he and his buyers already were aware of the ghost, since they all were local residents and had heard the stories over a course of many years.
The fact that it was haunted did not scare his buyers in the least. On the contrary, there ended up being a bidding war for the property precisely BECAUSE it was known to be haunted.
It seems the ghost was quite a local celebrity .

When listing any property in Ontario, if it is disclosed to the listing representative, by the seller, that it is haunted or otherwise stigmatized, or if it is common knowledge that we are somehow made aware of, then by law we must disclose it to all potential buyers and their agents.
This includes properties where murders/suicides have occurred and any other type of stigmatization that the property may possess.

Do you know the law regarding stigmatized/haunted properties in your province or state?

©2009JoSmith