If These Walls Could Talk…

I don’t believe in ghosts… at least I don’t think I do.  Yet I have to admit, when signing the closing papers on my recently purchased 1907 craftsman, I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone had ever died in this old house.  Could it even be haunted?  The idea of sharing the next several years with a supernatural houseguest made me a little uneasy.  I quickly decided that my superstitions were irrational, and ended up purchasing a great house, which, at least to my knowledge, isn’t inhabited by any postmortem roommates.

The New York Times ran an interesting article on Sunday about people with similar concerns.  While it seems perfectly acceptable to ask just about any question about a home’s history, most buyers are hesitant to ask if anyone ever died in the home, and sellers are usually even more reluctant to volunteer the information.  Could the knowledge of a death in the home, particularly an unnatural or violent one, bring the price down?  Maybe.  According to the Times, the house in Beverly Hills where the Menendez brothers killed their parents lost more than $1 million in value when it was sold.

This sort of thing doesn’t seem to bother some people.  I’ve even heard of people scouring the obituaries as a way of learning of homes coming on the market.  But for many people, a death in the home, especially a homicide or suicide, can be a deal-breaker… which begs the question: would you purchase a home if you knew someone had died there?