What is a stigmatized home? It is a home that has had something horrendous or extraordinary happen in it. If you can sell a home that has been stigmatized, you can sell anything.
The home of Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski in Benedict Canyon, Beverly Hills is a prime example of a home that carried a reputation that made it a hard sell. The home was the sight of one of the most notorious crimes in August 1969.
Everyone has heard of the Charles Manson murders. Sharon Tate was murdered in the home by the followers of Charles Manson. It was a high profile case due to the fact that it was the home of a movie director and his wife, who was an actress. Also adding to the horrendous aspects of the crime, Sharon Tate was eight months pregnant with a baby boy.
Followers of Charles Manson entered the property in the wee hours of the morning and waking family friend, Wojciech Frykowski, who had been asleep on the couch, the members of the cult proceeded to round up everyone in the home in the living room.
Though they fought for their lives, they were overpowered and mayhem soon broke out as the Manson followers embarked on a murderous spree. Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folger coffee empire, was found on the lawn stabbed a total of twenty-eight times. Frykowski, who had also made it to the lawn of the home died from fifty-one stab wounds as he tried in vain to save his life.
Sharon Tate was stabbed a total of sixteen times as she pleaded for the life of her baby and died calling for her mother. Messages were left scrawled in the victim’s blood and the atrocious crimes that were committed were followed by the murders of Leno La Bianca, supermarket exec and his wife in Los Feliz, a section of Los Angeles.
The Tate/Polanski home eventually sold for a good price but it took about twenty-five years for the hoopla over the home to settle down. In the early 1990’s it was purchased and torn down. It was replaced with a Mediterranean home of about 10,000 square feet.
Members of Heaven’s Gate’s home where a mass suicide occurred was impossible to sell. It was on the market for a long time and ultimately ended up being returned to the bank that held a mortgage on it. The bank sold it for a large loss and the home was bulldozed. When redeveloped, the address will be changed as neighbors have already changed the name of the street.
Homes that carry a reputation can be resold, however, it sometimes takes years and years for the publicity to die down enough for it to be resold. Even then, sometimes the old home must be torn down and replaced with a new home before a prospective buyer can be found.
What makes homes that have this type of past unattractive to home shoppers? Is it because deep down we believe that the homes carry bad luck or are we afraid that the souls of the murdered still reside in the home?
In some states it is illegal to omit the fact that a home has had a murder committed in it. It can land you in court as with the case of real estate agents who tried to sell a North Ryde home, where convicted murderer, Sef Gonzales conspired and murdered his parents and sister. A father and daughter real estate team have been fined $21,000 for having concealed the fact to potential buyers that the home was the scene of a murder.
In Laguna Beach, California a property appraiser that focuses on selling stigmatized properties, says that Nicole Brown’s home took 2 ½ years to sell when normally it would have been on the market for three months at the most. The home sold for far less than it was worth. The former wife of O. J. Simpson was murdered in the home along with her male friend. In a highly sensationalized trial, her former husband was found not guilty. However, the public is divided over whether he was actually innocent.
Famous homes that have been the site for a movie such as The Amityville Horror become the stomping grounds of fans wanting a glimpse of a haunted home. The home in Amityville, New York was the one used in the film about Ronald DeFeo, Jr., who murdered his family and was said to have evil spirits that haunted the Lutz family.
Eventually causing them to flee the home and never return, the home became a constant attraction for sightseers. It has been renovated and had a change of address to discourage this barrage of thrill seekers.
Sometimes the past that surrounds a home can actually work in it‘s favor. There are buyers who do not concern themselves with a stigma that is carried with the home. They actually have been known to be interested in a home for it’s past. Rattling chains and things that go bump in the night can have a sort of mystique for certain prospective buyers.
The past of a home is not always required to be disclosed to a prospective buyer. Suspected hauntings do not have to be disclosed if there is not absolute proof there is something dangerous happening in the home. However depending on the location of the property, heinous crimes committed or a bloody past attached to a home can be grounds for a lawsuit should it not be disclosed.
So many stigmatized properties have been the subject of reluctant buyers that agents and appraisers have included this in seminars. The National Association of Realtors has published “A Field Guide to Dealing with Stigmatized Property” which is intended to help realtors deal with marketing and selling stigmatized homes.
From messy divorces to hauntings and murders, the association has come up with tips to help unload these homes. Painting and changing the whole look of the home by planting trees, shrubs, and flowers is one suggestion. However the debate is still open as to exactly what must be disclosed to the prospective purchasers of a stigmatized property.
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In Utah, it is not required to disclose a stigmatized house. So as long as the stigmatization is non- material then it is not disclosed. So a meth home would be disclosed... a ghost would not.
There was a home here that gang members lived in and family bought the house and months later the entire home was vandalized and set on fire with the new family inside. Luckly, they got out.
Where do we draw the line in what we disclose and not. It was possible that nothing would have happened to this family and all would have been well. It is hard to anticipate a problem. I always like to depend on "when in doubt disclose" But if it is nonmaterial? You really hurt the sellers. The sellers in this case was the bank. It was a repo. They would not have known exactly who was living in the house.