Ghost Stories

I know it was early on in her search for a home that my buyer told me of her issue. "I need to know if anyone has ever died in the home." According to our California disclosures, the seller only needs to let the buyer know if anyone has passed away in the home in the last three years. My client, however, said she would know if there had ever been a death. She would feel it. We weren't looking at new construction...quite the opposite. Homes she could afford were built in the 1970-1980's. Since we were well into the 2000's by then, there would be many years unaccounted for with any home she might purchase unless we happened upon an original owner. I recommended we wait until we found the right place for her, then I would endeavor to find out how people who'd lived there previously had died, if indeed they had. The home she chose was really perfect for her. The young woman who was selling had been in the home for several years, but wasn't the original owner. I went to the city to check records for the names of the people who I could tell from tax records had lived there. In the midst of my search, the best thing happened. A neighbor, an original owner, with whom I struck up a conversation,knew every owner previous to the current seller. No one had passed away in the home. Whew! My client loves her home...feels right in it. That makes me a happy realtor.

There was the open house I was doing for another realtor. I had all the information I needed concerning the neighborhood and the comparable sales in the community. What I didn't know, the neighbors were eager to tell me when they came through the house that day.

"You know this is the murder house, right?" The lady had her grandchildren with her and was speaking to me in low tones as the kids headed for the stairs.

"No," I responded. "What does that mean?"

"In the seventies, a young mother was raped and murdered in the home. It was a contractor she and her husband had hired to do work....awful...all over the papers." The woman gave me the details that I will spare you here. Suffice to say it was grim.

"Did you live in the neighborhood then?" I asked. "Did you know the young mother?"

"I did." She looked toward the outside, to the street, and waved her arm back and forth. "Several of us are original owners. We all remember."

The rub for me was that I had clients ready to make an offer on the home. They'd walked into the open house and loved the size of it and the location. I was to go back to my office later and write up their offer. Had the woman not told me of the gruesome incident in the home, I wouldn't have needed to tell my clients. But now I knew. I was able to confirm the murder, too. So, I told my clients about the incident and lost that sale. How horrible, though, had I not told them and then these same neighbors related the story after they'd closed and moved in. Doing the right thing still paid off as I sold the clients another home close by which they love!

I recently heard of a lawsuit against a realtor who didn't disclose the ghost in the house. I'm dead serious. Once the buyer moved in he had several instances where he was spooked by the weird things happening in the home. Of course, there'd been no disclosure of a ghost previously. And defining the presence of one is a tricky proposition. He lost. But the point here is if the seller says there is a ghost, whether I believe in them or not, I'd need to tell my client.

When I first came into real estate, I had no idea that this particular disclosure was a part of selling a home. Some people are just fine with a home where someone has died (maybe not murdered), and others just don't want any part of it.

Bottom Line: Disclosures are really important in the purchase and sale of a home. Having a real estate professional to work through them with you, to learn things from the seller that the buyer not using a realtor wouldn't think to ask, and to serve as protection for you is an invaluable service in the process.