Zillow deep dives into laws around selling haunted houses in the US.

In honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday, folks at Zillow started digging into which states actually deal with paranormal activity in their real estate disclosure laws. Turns out only 4 states do, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Minnesota. 

In Alabama, although the state does not require any direct mention of paranormal activity during the real estate transaction, the court did rule that a seller must disclose any material defect or condition that affects health and safety to the buyer, in a case related to a haunted house.

In Arizona, in a court case about a haunted house, it was ruled that the seller had to disclose important facts that might negatively affect the value of the property.

The courts in New York decided if the seller had done for instance a ghost hunter show about the specific home, and the buyer was ignorant to the reputation of haunting the seller had intentionally perpetuated, the sale of the house could be rescinded. There are so many famous haunted houses in NY, I can think of several off the top of my head, its understandable the court actually runs into this specific issue often enough to have this rule in place.

Here in California, the court decided a death on the property is relevant information if the death has a major effect on the value of the property. The seller is required to disclose a death occurring on the property within the last 3 years. I wonder who decided on 3 years and why?

A lot of states just specify that and murder or suicide must be disclosed o the buyer, but only if they ask.

Zillow's team came across realtor stories describing how unexplained noises and disturbances made holding their open house on a haunted property trickier. They described loud banging sounds in the basement with no obvious cause, or phones ringing repeatedly with no one on the other end.

A 2020 survey done by realtor.com found that nearly 62% of Americans say they wouldn't even consider living in a home that was reputed to be haunted.

The legal president for selling haunted houses was set in a 1991 case since deemed the Ghost busters case. The buyer was from out of state and was totally unaware of the fact that the seller had actively promoted the house as being very haunted. So the buyer sued them and won the case when the court ruled that yes, in fact the home was haunted.

Most of us think as haunted houses as a fun way to access the adrenaline rush we feel accompanying the sensation of fear, the wildness of an uncontrolled feeling was experience although we’re fairly certain under it all we’re in no real danger...

Turns out if you're a seller the haunting might be a legitimate cause for concern after all. As if its not hard enough sometimes to go through the selling process smoothly, you’ve got the paranormal working against you.

Thank goodness agents exist like the Monday team, one thing is for certain, they aint afraid of no ghost.