Did you know that houses can be shunned? In this episode, Cassie, Ali and Danielle are talking about a few cases, all having to do with stigmatized properties. A stigmatized property is property that buyers or tenants may shun for reasons that are unrelated to its physical condition or features. These can include death of an occupant, murder, suicide, and even the belief that a house is haunted.
Would you buy a house that had a murder occur in it? We are all about the energy of the house. If it is heavy, THAT’S A NO FOR US! The Chakanos purchased the home and renovated it and then put it for sale. The new purchaser filed a complaint for failure to disclose. Court found it was her job to do due diligence.
In this episode, they discuss two cases involving home sales where the cause of death of the previous owner was disputed. In Pennsylvania, sellers didn’t disclose a murder, leading to a lawsuit, and in Maryland, a buyer sued after finding out the previous owner died in the home.
Listen in to hear more about these interesting cases!
TRANSCRIPT
Cassie: So after our conversation about haunted properties, I went on a tangent, not about haunted stuff. Where is this going, Bradley? Spooky. I know you guys think I’m gonna talk about ghosts, but I’m not.
Danielle: It’s zombies this time.
Ali: That would be fun. I’m gonna look for a zombie suitcase. You know what? If there’s a will, there’s a way. Sure. I feel like some other agents are zombies with the way they reply. That’s fair. That’s true.
Cassie: It’s true. So can you guys tell me what a stigmatized property is? You know what that means? I would assume it’s something with a bad reputation.
Cassie: Yeah, yeah. So a stigmatized property, defined by the NAR, is a property that’s been psychologically impacted by an event that occurred or was suspected to have occurred on the property. Such events include a murder, a suicide, alleged haunting, or nefarious previous owners.
Ali: Never would have guessed that.
Cassie: Yeah, so it’s been stigmatized. Yes, its psychological value has been impacted. Every state has different laws about whether or not you have to share and the timeframes in doing so. I have a couple of cases of stigmatized properties.
Danielle: That’s kind of a broad range.
Cassie: And not to another, so. Well, just for your warning, we’re going to be talking a little bit, not in depth, about murder and suicide. Okay. So. The first case we’re going to be looking at. Happy Thursday.
Yeah. Let’s get into it. I listen to a lot of true crimes. We talked about that a little bit when we talked about the haunted house lit case. So, I’m going to be talking a little bit about the haunted house lit case. Yeah. What do you have to disclose when you’re selling?
I do have a list of the different states that require some sort of disclosure just to look at what that looks like for different states. In Washington, we don’t have to disclose.
Ali: That is like the worst part about writing these. It’s always just like, okay, how do you say the name? You’re like a substitute teacher. Like you just know you’re going to get it wrong.
Cassie: Even if you look up, uh, how to pronounce it, that may not be how they pronounce it. So, you know, we just apologize to anyone whose names we butchered.
In February of 2006, Constantino’s CommuBullis shot and killed himself and his wife inside the home. Oof. Wow. Super tragic. Yeah. The murder was very publicized in the local media and on the internet. And the Ducatos purchased the property from an estate auction in 2006 for 450,000.
Sorry. Where’s this again?, this is in, I think, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Ali: Would you guys ever live in a house that you knew a murder took place in?
Cassie: Probably.
Danielle: I don’t know. That depends for me. Like, who knows what has happened on our land? Like And it depends on, yeah, I feel like there’s contributing factors before I would decide.
C: Yeah, valid. I feel like that one I’d be like, even if it was super cheap, I probably couldn’t get myself to do it. Yeah, I feel like there are worse things than death that happen in houses.
D: Yeah. And you don’t know. And it depends. You don’t know. And you know, it depends on the feel and the energy of the house.
A: Right. So they bought the house. Which by the way, I just don’t think it would feel too good after that.
D: So it’s not like buying a car where you have to disclose a salvage title. I mean, not to be crude, but someone dies in it. It’s not, it’s not like that. It’s not a material defect. It’s a psychological defect.
A: Right. I think it’s interesting that you mentioned that. There are states that don’t have like a duty to disclose. And then there are states that do, but there are also states that are what are considered caveat emptor states. So it’s kind of interesting because there’s some overlap between the two.
C: So I think it’s interesting. And like, I’ve read some articles about people that are like, you know, like, I bought this house and it was really cheap because this happened there, but like, I love my house and I don’t care. We’ve done our thing, you know? So I think that it’s just, I don’t know. I think it’s interesting and like, I think it’s just, it’s really fascinating.
A: I’m also curious if you guys ever came across a haunted house or like a stigmatized property? Like you didn’t know or like, you didn’t believe it or whatever. And then like, when you got there, you were like, oh, or like, you saw some stuff. Or like, you got a bad vibe or something like that. Like, I’m just curious if you guys have ever come across anything like that. I feel like I’m super sensitive to that kind of stuff. I think that stuff is super interesting.
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