{"id":70391,"date":"2017-03-26T20:02:26","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T02:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/homebuyers-have-ways-to-learn-about-a-houses-sordid-history\/"},"modified":"2017-03-27T02:02:26","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T02:02:26","slug":"homebuyers-have-ways-to-learn-about-a-houses-sordid-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/homebuyers-have-ways-to-learn-about-a-houses-sordid-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Homebuyers have ways to learn about a house\u2019s sordid history"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"
Cliff Vancura\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The stigma and intrigue of \u201cmurder houses\u201d make them common backdrops for cheap television and a trap for tourists. But selling so-called stigmatized houses, where a death \u2013 particularly a violent one \u2013 occurred, is a different story.<\/p>\n

House hunters typically seek information \u2013 such as details about environmental and structural problems \u2013 about a house\u2019s backstory before making a purchase.<\/p>\n

But for some, the eerier details of a house\u2019s history can play a role in whether they close the deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom an agent\u2019s perspective, there is a lot more preparation for those discussions than the discussions actually present themselves,\u201d said local real estate agent Joe Clair. \u201cBy the time a buyer gets to a house where something occurred, in this day and age, it\u2019s so well-known through news publications and people talking, it no longer catches people off-guard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Real estate agent Rick Lorenz said he has never fielded a question from a client about in-house deaths, though he did sell a house in the El Rancho Florida district where a murder occurred.<\/p>\n

Colorado Real Estate Commission statute does not require agents to disclose a property\u2019s death-related details, but Lorenz said he did anyway because his client wanted the fact known, and the buyer wasn\u2019t deterred.<\/p>\n

Most states don\u2019t require real estate agents to disclose dark details that might daunt the superstitious.<\/p>\n

DiedInHouse.com<\/a> provides that information.<\/p>\n

By providing a home address, the site can generate information about the property that is available through public records, including if a death occurred there, who died and when, cause of death, names of previous owners, whether the house endured a fire, and other unsavory details, including whether sex-offenders or meth-cookers resided there.<\/p>\n

The website was created in 2013 as an aid for homebuyers whose state laws might not readily offer up that information.<\/p>\n

Founder and co-CEO Roy Condrey said the site has had more than 95,000 users since its launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about transparency,\u201d Condrey said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things people don\u2019t like to admit they care about, or they don\u2019t even think about until afterward. It happened to me, with a rental, and I found out there was a couple that died that had HIV. This is for people who care about that. We want to provide all the information we can, then you decide for yourself how you feel about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to one study<\/a> by Finder.com, the U.S. housing market loses about $2.3 billion each year to property devaluation because of homicides in homes. It also suggests that the stigma can extend to surrounding properties.<\/p>\n

The report found the total market loss for Colorado in 2014 was about $7 million.<\/p>\n

Real estate appraiser Orell Anderson, who valued the Nicole Brown Simpson and JonBenet Ramsey homes, told Realtor.com last year that \u201cmacabre residences\u201d are typically discounted 10 to 15 percent.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the legendary \u201cAmityville Horror\u201d house in New York, which foddered a book and films after its 23-year-old resident shot and killed his parents and younger siblings there in 1974, sold this year for $605,000 \u2013 about $250,000 less than the asking price.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people like the house, it\u2019s no big deal,\u201d said Don Ferris, a Durango real estate agent. \u201cI had a client look at a house on U.S. Highway 550 where a guy committed suicide. He (the buyer) didn\u2019t care. A suicide doesn\u2019t denote a crime scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reverse can be true: Morbidly humored buyers seek out such real estate, which can even be assets in niche locations, such as New Orleans, where a certain level of ghoulishness is a virtue.<\/p>\n

But more commonly, the unsuperstitious are able to take advantage of the sometimes-major markdowns. \u201cIf you don\u2019t care, you can use it as leverage to get a discount,\u201d Condrey said. \u201cYou may not get a discount, but it\u2019s a reason to ask for one.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2015, for example, a Washington, D.C., mansion sold for $3 million a week after it was listed and less than six months after the previous residents \u2013 a couple, their son and their housekeeper \u2013 were murdered inside.<\/p>\n

The selling price was about half the average home value in the popular neighborhood, according to The Washington Post.<\/p>\n

Such superstitions about homes aren\u2019t worth putting stock into anyway, said local historian Duane Smith, who has spent a fair amount of time in some of Durango\u2019s oldest and purportedly \u201chaunted\u201d homes on East Third Avenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are stories about a lot of those homes, where most of the well-to-do people lived in the 19th century,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019ve been in some of them, and I\u2019ve never noticed anything unusual.\u201d<\/p>\n

jpace@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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