Come-on! Do You Really Think Its Haunted?

[WV "Pop's" Smith]

Oooooh!  We real estate entrepreneurs hardly ever talk about this one, at least in "open-forum".  Want to know why? Because a house that's reputed to be home to things beyond our mortal understanding, friendly or not, can be a real pain in a poltergeist's "patoot" (assuming they even have "patoots")-not to mention, your "pocket book"-that's why!

 

Remember the movie the house in the inset above starred in? You know, the one in that sleepy, unassuming little village called Amityville, NY or PA, I can't remember which. The one the new owners discovered had a bit of an insect problem (flies, if memory serves) that proved to be "child's-play" compared to the horrific "goings-on" they had to contend with before they abandoned the place, horrified and at "high-speed", less than a month after having just moved in. Boy, was that a story on "The Flip Side- or what?

 

The point is (and "Pop's" always comes to the point, eventually!) houses that are purported to be haunted (among other things) are known, in real estate parlance, as being "stigmatized'. And this unholy designation can come back to "haunt" (pun intended) unwary investors, both financially and legally. Wouldn't you know it, there's always a ghoulish lawyer "in the wood pile", somewhere!

 

Perhaps, the most concise explanation I've read on the subject of "stigmatized" real estate can be found on one of the most fascinating real estate related sites I've visited in a long time. The site is published by Mary Pope-Handy and is called "The Haunted Real Estate Blog: Real Estate with a Little Something ....

 

The definition Ms Pope-Handy gives us reads, in part, as follows:

 

"A stigma can be caused by a murder or other crime, usually violent – it does not have to result in death for a stigma to be attached to the property. The presence or suspected presence of a ghost would cause a stigma, but so would a murder, rape, or other highly negative event..." 

 

Elsewhere, on her blog, Ms. Pope-Handy goes on to explain that stigmatization can be the result of a number of issues and/or occurrences having nothing, whatsoever, to do with "things that go bump in the night". These can include proximity to "high-tension" lines, micro-wave towers and toxic/hazardous waste sites, etc. 

The point here, for real estate investors, is that there are issues, very real issues, which may or may not become apparent during the normal course of "due-diligence"-and that some of these issues can be not just "scary", but costly, as well, if they go undiscovered until after "the deal is done". 

 

Sleep well, tonight...

 

"Pop's"