Community Chat

[stevieb]

All the hocus pocus aside... I honestly don't know... Odds are if you're moving into an older place, someone has passed away there, but the facts about this one aren't in doubt and are rather glaring. This seems like a rather extreme example and I'd have to think long and hard about it.

[MaRina]

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@hoosieroriginal wrote:

I learned shortly after buying my house that a man committed suicide in my house - doesn't bother me - it did bother me that it wasn't told to me when I bought the house - that I had to find out from neighbors.

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By law your suppose to be told if there was a death in the home. 

We were told the previous owners wife passed away here peacefully from cancer. 

[SFGIANTSGIRL]

Natural death, yes. Murder/suicide, no.  I just don't think I could shake the feeling and if you have kids, they have a way of finding things out and I know my boys would be freaked out.

[halfpint1]

Much later after we bought our first house we were told that a man hung himself in the garage.  We lived there about 34 years and nothing bad happened to us.

[NativeJax]

Passing away and being children who were murdered to be seems different. Peaceful passing or horrific murder to me are different but that is just me.

[MaRina]

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@NativeJax wrote:
Passing away and being children who were murdered to be seems different. Peaceful passing or horrific murder to me are different but that is just me.

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@NativeJax ITA, peaceful passing as our situation didn't bother me. But murder of two children I couldn't live there.

[Citrine1]

No.  Like some other posters said, it has nothing to do with ghosts or bad energy or anything like that.  But the sadness of the situation would weigh heavily on me and I would find it difficult to be happy in a place that was so painful for someone else.  

[itiswhatitis]

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@MaRina wrote:

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@hoosieroriginal wrote:

I learned shortly after buying my house that a man committed suicide in my house - doesn't bother me - it did bother me that it wasn't told to me when I bought the house - that I had to find out from neighbors.

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By law your suppose to be told if there was a death in the home. 

We were told the previous owners wife passed away here peacefully from cancer. 

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This law is state specific and disclosures vary.  Every state does not require this disclosure.  Check it out here:

If you live in California, for example, you must disclose whether any deaths occurred on the property within the last three years. Few other states’ laws contain such a requirement, however. In fact, in some states, sellers are explicitly told (within the law or by court decisions) that they do NOT need to disclose deaths on the property to buyers. This is the case in Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, for example. If in doubt, consult an attorney.

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/selling-my-house-do-i-have-disclose-previous-death-here.html

[Spurt]

I would keep thinking about the poor kids that were murdered there which would bother me .....so my answer is NO!

[itiswhatitis]

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@SeaMaiden wrote:

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@deepwaterdotter wrote:

Not if I knew it beforehand. 

When we bought our current home, we had been touring various homes while we visited from out of town over numerous weekends.  Didn't really know anything about the neighborhood or previous homeowners, only that the house had been empty for 1 1/2 years.  When we got to know the couple next door about a month after moving in, they told us that a woman had hung herself from the basement rafters of our home about 10 years before. 

Since we are not superstitious nor believe in ghosts, we are OK with our house's past.  But that may explain why the house had sat empty for so long and why we were able to negotiate a very affordable price.         

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@deepwaterdotter   I believe by law that information if known must be  disclosed to the potential buyer?

Some buyers may have concerns or superstitions about purchasing a home in which someone has died, so it’s important to know if your state requires sellers to disclose a previous death in the home.

“Each state will have slightly different requirements for disclosure,” says Jim Olenbush, a Texas real estate broker. “In Texas, for example, deaths from natural causes, suicides, or accidents unrelated to the property do not have to be disclosed."

“A seller is required to disclose deaths related to the condition of the property or violent crimes,” he says. For example, if a previous occupant’s child drowned in the swimming pool because it didn’t have the proper safety fence, the seller would need to disclose the death even after remedying the safety issue by installing a proper pool enclosure. There are, however, circumstances where sellers do not have to disclose a death on the property.

“There are no states in which there is an obligation to disclose the death of a person who has deceased under natural conditions,” says attorney Matthew Reischer, CEO of LegalAdvice.com. “However, some states impose a duty on a stigmatized home or apartment in which there has been a suicide or murder. Some states even go so far as to impose an affirmative duty on a seller if they have knowledge that their real estate is being haunted by the dead.”

Even when disclosure isn’t required – for example, Georgia does not require the disclosure of homicide or suicide – you may want to err on the side of giving the buyer notice of a death on the property. “If a seller is concerned about liability, the best advice is to go ahead and disclose everything upfront even if it is not required by law,” Olenbush says. “Buyers will always hear about things from the neighbors, and the surprise could cause them to back out of a purchase contract or wonder what else the seller is not telling them.”

Read more: Real Estate Flipping: 8 Disclosures You Must Make | Investopedia http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/061214/real-estate-flipping-8-disclosures-you-...
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