Dead people

[Nathan Paisley]

Now that I have your attention... I have a house I want to get under contract to wholesale but... 2 people were shot and killed in the house 3 yrs ago. My question is, how does this affect an investors mentality when thinking about rehab/sell? I think it limits potential retail buyers but if the numbers work... What do you think?

[Rob K.]

I'm pretty sure that some states make you disclose this to a new purchaser. My friend bought a house where the previous owner killed some family members in the house. My state doesn't require you to disclose this, but on a slow news day, the media came to see the house with a hidden camera and asked him a bunch of stupid questions.

One time, I had a guy call about a house for rent. He asked a bunch of normal questions and then asked if there were any ghosts. I had never been asked this before. I said, "Ghosts?". He said, "Yes. Ghosts? Spirits?" I told him there were no such thing as ghosts and he proceeded to "school" me on the existence of ghosts. He went on and on wanting to know if anyone died in the house and if there had been any violence.

I did see a house on CL once that was advertised as a haunted house. They stated that everyone who lived in the house had seen ghosts. Maybe you could market this house to some goth types that are into weird stuff. Throw in a stove, fridge, and ouija board.