I was teaching a class of prospective real estate agents a couple of years ago when I started a conversation about stigmatized properties. Stigmatized properties are properties where events have occurred or were rumored to occur that didn't physically impact the property but might psychologically impact it. These types of events include everything from a baby dying of infant sudden death syndrome to suicide to haunted houses.
One of my students was very unconvinced about haunted houses. "Ghosts don't exist," she said with her arms folded across her chest. So I told my repertoire of haunted house stories but she still thought I was pulling the class' collective leg.
About a month later, she was back to take the cram exam for the state licensing test. She had been following an agent around in the field learning the business first hand and proceeded to tell me this story.
She and her mentor had gone on a listing presentation regarding a four-year old home and, naturally, asked the seller why he was selling. He replied that he couldn't keep the upstairs doors closed. "What?" they said. He said that every time he closed all of the doors upstairs (bedrooms and bathrooms) in his two story home, they would come open. He then demonstrated that by taking them upstairs, closing all the doors and then going back down stairs. A couple of minutes later, they all went upstairs and all the doors were open. He had concluded that the house was haunted and that was why he wanted to sell. And, indeed, there seemed to be no other reason that the doors would swing open of their own accord. This ghost evidently liked newer property.
Do ghosts exist? When it comes to selling real estate, it doesn't make any difference. If your buyers believe in ghosts, then they will want to know about the "automatically opening" doors. If they don't believe in ghosts, the opening doors probably won't make any difference. I have surveyed my classes over the years asking them this question. "If I told you the house was haunted, would you still buy it?" My informal survey revealed that about 50% of the population believes in ghosts and, therefore, would not buy the property even at a discount!
From a listing agent's standpoint, the question becomes whether or not to disclose the presence of ghosts to the showing agents and their clients. This type of question is what I call a "broker's call." Since there are no statutes (that I'm aware of) that mandate the disclosure of ghosts, it should be up to the broker who has the resulting liability to make that decision.
Before you decide, you should know that there is any number of lawsuits involving haunted houses. Plaintiffs usually win when they are not told about the ghosts. One New York case went all the way to the New York Supreme Court where the court decided that, yes, the seller should have told the buyer the house was haunted-a number of ghosts dressed in Revolutionary War clothing and having dances all the time. And there are cases in which the buyer paid a premium for a "haunted" house and when they moved in the ghosts moved out and the buyer sued and won-no ghosts!
In my office, we disclose the ghosts and don't guarantee that they are there or not there but only that this is what the seller told us. I love these haunted houses especially when I can talk the ghost into holding the open houses.
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