Would you want to buy a house that is haunted?

Question

Many states have laws you have to declare violent crime in a house, but not poltergeist activity. We do have a few visitors from time to time. Should I declare it on the listing or not? Would you be more or less likely to consider the house to buy it?

Answer 1

I would not consider moving into a haunted house, this will definitely chase potential buyers away.

Answer 2

If it wasn't violent then i say i would, I mean you could never feel lonely.

Answer 3

yeah,shore !!i mean i would love to cuz i wanna have friends and it's cool you know . i agree with nuff said. he's so right i mean i would love to!do u believe in spirits and ghosts?

Answer 4

Personally,From what i've seen happen to people and their families on tv, then no, but we cant depend on the television for giving true information. most people probly wouldnt want to buy the house. Im the type of person that gets freaked out by small things;; Movies & tv have put so much stuff into our heads that wen we hear one little noise, we think of the worst. But if you kno a poltergeist is there, then ud probly be freaked out even more. BUT there ARE some people that liike to research and put themselves in that kind of position wit all the ghosts && stuf. SO u shuld consider listing it. Good luck!

Answer 5

yea..i agree with ...nuff said...

Answer 6

Yes, I have lived in an "occupied" home before.  I would consider buying one depending on the activity happening.  I could research and never leave home.

As for your home, I would check with a real estate broker for the laws in your state.  By all means, if you are to declare it ...do.  Some people might find it just enough of a hook to buy it for that reason.

Answer 7

Nopes... not if i can avoid

Answer 8

Oddly, I probably would.  lol

No, there is no law for disclosing the fact of "spirit activity".  However, if a potential buyer does ask you if there has been any activity in the house & you tell them No, then they do have grounds of a misrepresentaion of the home.

That is a FACT!!!

If I were to consider buying one, it would soley depend on the type of actvity going on.  I would have to to a lot of research & take sometime before jumping into buying it.

Really, the market is quite high for so-called "haunted" houses.

Answer 9

Of course I would.I doubt there's ever been a house that didn't  sell because it was haunted.It's true that some might be frightened.I think there's plenty of folks that would laugh it off.Even the Amittyville house has sold.When a person who doesn't believe in ghosts buys a haunted house.It's not haunted anymore.Funny how that works.

Answer 10

Less likely.

Answer 11

You don't have to declare poltergeists because there's no evidence that they exist.  It would be like having to declare that you think fairies live in the garden and that's why none of your plants grow.  It wouldn't make any difference to me what the previous owners thought about ghosts, demons, and fairies, but it might suggest to me that there's something wrong with the wiring or foundation.  If you've had it checked out by an inspector, which I think you have to do before you sell it, you don't have to mention anything else.

Answer 12

In this day and age with all the interest in hauntings, listing it as haunted may actually attract buyers contrary to popular belief. It wouldn't scare me off, so long as nothing violent has come about there as a result of the haunting. I'm not telling you this is the best way to list the house. I'm only telling you that you would be surprised at how many people wouldn't mind or maybe would even seek the house just for that purpose, so many people trying to prove such things exist. So many ghosthunters out there now. As long as no bad activity has occurred there, I would be more likely to buy it, but everyone isn't me. However, there are many that are like me. Since you are dealing with real business and this is not an experiment (I'm assuming you need to get this house sold now) I would probably not declare haunted in the listing. If you have time to kill and serious curiosity on the matter, then list it haunted. Maybe it would sell faster that way. Only one way to know for sure, by doing it.

Answer 13

In New York State, you have to declare if your house is haunted.

People who bought a house, didn't know it had spirits in it. They took the former owners to court over it & won the case. The old owners had to rebuy the house from them.

Talk to a real estate broker. They will let you know the laws of your state.

Selling the Haunted House

Apr 01, 2003

Haunted houses do exist. So ruled the Supreme Court of the State of New York in a landmark decision, known as the Nyack Case, in the 1990s. It clearly set out the parameters of what a stigma problem can do to a property.

An out-of-town purchaser came to Nyack, New York and inspected a lovely older home that many described as a replica of the Munster Home from the well-known television series.

The buyer put in an offer and a deposit. Only after they engaged a local architect did they find out that the locals knew the property as the town haunted house. It seems that the former owner, in order to promote her bread and breakfast operation, had heavily advertised the house as a haunted house. It was decorated as a haunted house at Halloween, and throughout the year reports of strange happenings appeared in the local newspaper. An article about this haunted house had even appeared in Reader’s Digest. The owner had described various ghosts in her interviews over the years. The buyers knew nothing of these events.

The Supreme Court of New York, in a 3-2 vote for the buyers, gave them a release of their deposit and damages. The courts found that if the buyers had been given all of the facts, they could have made their own determination before submitting an offer. This was denied to them due to non-disclosure by the seller.

Judge Rubin, in his decision stated, “Whether the source of the spectral apparitions seen by defendant seller are parapsychic or psychongenic, having reported their presence in both a national publication and the local press, defendant is estopped to deny their existence, and, as a matter of law, the house is haunted.” (author’s note – I actually understood some of the words the judge used).

In Stambovsky v. Ackley, the Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division ruled that a seller must disclose that a house has a reputation for being haunted when there is a fiduciary relationship or in cases of fraud or misrepresentation,[2] because such a reputation impairs the value of the house:

Answer 14

i hope you know that theres no such thing as a haunted house, but if there were supersticious people out there then mayebe, but i really dont believe in that sort of nonsense, as for the voilent behavior, it might change my mind a little, just because of the hostile feeling in that house, good luck to you.

Answer 15

If you had to declare about poultergeist activity, you'd have to declare about visits by Santa Claus and the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy.  That would just be far too much documentation.

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Answer 16

it depends.  what kind of visitors?  are they jehova's witnesses or girl scouts selling cookies?  

please be more specific.  yahoo answers is serious, its not a playground.

Answer 17

Would I buy a haunted house?  If it was the house I really wanted.

I asked my mother, who is a real estate agent, what she would do if she was listing a house and the owner said it was haunted.  She said she would not disclose in the listing.  She would advise her client to wait until it was asked.  But honestly, how many people would ask if a property was haunted?  So she said that when you have a buyer that looks serious, advise your agent to advise their agent that you believe the house to be haunted and go from there.

Answer 18

>sure, then I would have friends who couldnt leave. You could have parties and always know there would be guests present. the possibilities are endless.

edit: I could even charge 100 dollars a head for investigators to come in, that would cover my mortgage.

edit 2: if asked directly, you have to disclose a haunting to a perspective buyer.

Answer 19

If it met all my criteria and it was between two houses that did so I would be more likely to buy it.

However, I am almost certain I am in the minority.

I think most people that have an interest in such matters would ask. I think most people in general even if you told them would just shrug and continue to consider the house for all the normal reasons.

Just my two cents.

Psi