A few days ago, I read a post by Sasha Dear, and it made me think about an experience from my childhood.
When I was 15, there was a murder down the street from our house. An extremely unusual even in Newport Beach that drew all of the neighbors out to watch, including my siblings and me.
It was the talk of the neighborhood and very strange, but little did I know that it would get stranger, for us at least, 6 months later.
The house still stood vacant until the day Mom came home and announced that we would be moving in to the home. Move in to the "murder house!?" She had to be crazy! Mom suggested we could call it the "Lion House" insteads as there were lions on the pillars out front. Trying to convince several teenagers that it wasn't the murder house was useless.
My siblings and I didn't want to move in. Understand, we watched the body come out of the house, but move in we did.
So, you're probably wondering, did we experience anything strange? Did we see a ghost? Did things mysteriously move around the house?
Nothing so overt.
Did we feel energy in the house? You bet we did! Was it real? Who knows, but it was real to us. None of the kids particularly wanted to be home alone. My three year old sister use to have the hair on her arms raise and goose bumps appear at the oddest times. Did she even know there was anything worrisome?
And, my brother even found a way to capitalize on the "fame." He offered tours of the house for 50 cents per piece and friends and neighboring kids were lined up practically around the block to take a peek.
What I do know from this experience is that it definitely left the house stigmatized. I heard recently that more than 20 years later, some in the neighborhood still refer to it as the "murder house".
I know from experience that buyers are effected by the energy in the house, real or imagined. Some homes just feel sad when you walk in, perhaps it's just neglect or the distressed aspect of the home, but it can effect decisions made by a buyer. Others seem to radiate joy, but maybe it's just the decorated aspects of the home.
Whatever it is, it effects buyers' decisions.
Perhaps we're only required to disclose deaths within 3 years of a purchase, but I wonder what someone might think moving in to the neighborhood only to learn later of a "murder house's" history.
The image above is simply a house, not the home in question.
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About the author: Christine Donovan is a California Residential Real Estate Broker with experience in assisting clients buy and sell residential real estate.
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