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Just a random thought I had, but would it be a deal breaker for any of you if you found a house you like, ideal location/good price, but there was a death within the house in the past?
Some states don't even require agents/sellers to state this fact at all, while some states like California does require you to mention it (within a 3 year window).
I don't know myself, it's not like I would necessarily ask, but the thought would creep me out, especially depending on the way the person died.
When I was selling my townhouse 20 years ago, one of the buyers actually inquired if someone died in the property.
I rented a house with a ghost in it once. Later I found out it had two ghosts.
Most good deals are estate sales. Funny when I sold my house in a FSBO I did a few tours. One buyer I got feeling was not buying anyhow I said my Dad liked it so much he wanted a hospital bed set up at home. My mom cleaning out dining room and he died right there by dining room table. That way he gets to be at all the holidays going forward.
Worse house that was a good deal I wanted to buy wife refused.
The house the owners only daughter died of leukemia in house at age of 7 and Mom and Dad were suing water company and over some plume under house claiming it gave her daughter cancer and killed her.
My sister lived nearby and said it was not true. Of course my pregant wife wanted no part of putting her first born in a dead kids nursery. It was all redone just 7 years earlier no painting required.
As long as they removed the body before I moved in.
Seriously, only problem I would have would be how long the body was in the house before it was found. Dead body odor is terrible and hard to completely remove. So if the odor seeped into the walls, rugs, etc., a good cleaning might get the surface smell but eventually it could come back.
Yeesh, does everyone live in a home built less than 10 years ago? I grew up in an old home and I know for fact several people died there (mostly old age/sickness). I just take it as a given someone croaked in the house if the home predates modern hospitals/nursing homes. Even today many people prefer dying at home as opposed to a hospital/hospice setting. I can even overlook murders since 99% of those are usually committed as the result of some stupid heat of the moment argument. I doubt karma would seek me out because I bought the house of a nasty marital affair gone wrong.
Most houses of a certain age have had at least one person die there. If you've ever lived in a house that was old enough, chances are someone died there and you were none the wiser.
In fact, it was common for people to be waked at home back in the day. So not only is it likely that someone died there, but chances are they were waked there for a couple days.
Just a random thought I had, but would it be a deal breaker for any of you if you found a house you like, ideal location/good price, but there was a death within the house in the past?
Some states don't even require agents/sellers to state this fact at all, while some states like California does require you to mention it (within a 3 year window).
I don't know myself, it's not like I would necessarily ask, but the thought would creep me out, especially depending on the way the person died.
When I was selling my townhouse 20 years ago, one of the buyers actually inquired if someone died in the property.
As long as I don't have to look at the corpse, I'm fine with someone dying in a home. My first house a man died in the swimming pool. Didn't bother me.
I wondered the same thing. I don't feel a bit silly.
However, I do wonder why people seem to feel it necessary to come up with their own silly abbreviations, then don't understand why somebody asks "What does that mean?"
I think it is silly that people make up abbreviations. Is it really so much more difficult to type "my husband" instead of DH? If people don't have time to type a few extra letters I am amazed they have time to spend on a message board at all.
If it was a violent death then no, I wouldn't want it. But we did bid on 2 houses where the owners had both died in their respective houses peacefully of old age. In the first case, we made a lower offer than the owner's adult son wanted, so he asked if we'd be willing to hold out until the end of a long holiday weekend to see if he'd get a higher offer, we said no--it would have tied up our ability to bid on something else in that time. Apparently many potential buyers were so turned off by the owner's death in the house that the son didn't get any more offers over the weekend. They called our agent and wanted to accept our lower offer, but we had already moved on by then. In the second case, the house fell out of escrow because the buyers were just too creeped out by the idea. We swooped in just in time to have our offer accepted, but the house needed too much updating for the price, so we backed out. But in both cases, the owner's death in the house didn't deter us from making an offer. It was other circumstances that prevented the deals from going through.
There's a house in my neighborhood that went under contract quickly a few weeks ago. Every time I drive by it I remember the original owners were a younger couple with a child, and the husband committed suicide with a gun in the basement. I would never want to buy a house knowing that and I wonder if the new buyers have any clue.
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