Buying Duplex Property but just found some Terrible News about it

[Niel CHoi]

Hello, so my wife and I have been in the process of buying our first investment property (Duplex) so that we could live on one side while renting the other side out. The closing date is 9/19.

However, today I ran into troubling news where the previous tenants of the side we are going to be living in have died. The mother died of drug overdose as well as her 2 year old child (most likely took his life with her, as she committed suicide). This is most likely the reason why the seller is selling it. (Doesn't want to deal with investing after this incident perhaps?)

First of all, this is insane! This is in the town of Grimes Iowa (which is a very good district/neighborhood) and something like this never happens here. 

My questions:

1) Should I be concerned about this, from an real estate investment standpoint? (ex: news like this will make it hard to rent out in the future).

2) If I wanted to back out of this sale, would it be legal to do so at this point? (Currently being appraised and underwritten).

3) Any other thoughts about this situation?

[Michell P.]

You might want to walk around the neighborhood, introduce yourself to some of your neighbors and let them know you're thinking of purchasing that property.  If no one jumps forward to let you know what happened, then you're probably safe... and if the opposite happens you know your future tenants will know all the gory details 5 minutes after moving in.