Haunted and For Sale

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
When you see a horror movie about a cursed house, once the credits roll you sigh with relief because you live in an ordinary house. Everything changes when it comes to actually buying one, and then living in a home that's stigmatized either by murder, suicide or an actual haunting.

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The Grimshawe House in Salem built in 1770 is reputed to be haunted

On occasion the first to discover that a property might be problematic is the realtor. Dana Bull arrived with an inspector at a two-family property in Salem, Massachusetts. One of the units was occupied, and the buyer needed her feedback before deciding if they should stay, or if new tenants were in order.

The unit was "filthy" and full of "satanic decor". Then she noticed something she missed on a prior visit—it was a door hidden behind a drape. Unlike the rest of the property, this room was clean and  had objects she didn't recognize, but the inspector did know what they were.

Bull said, "It was a room where we guessed they were... sacrificing animals [as part of a religious practice]. Needless to say, my buyers didn't pursue that property."

As a realtor handling sales in Salem, she came across properties owned by persons associated with the occult, but she relates that these are issues that realtors across the country face.

Even though a haunted house has no material defect, it is still considered stigmatized. There's an emotional response when it becomes known that a murder, suicide, drug manufacturing, devil worshiping, hoarding or criminal activity have taken place inside a structure. Even though it's not logical, buyers are scared off from buying a property that otherwise they  would be interested in. 

Most of the time, information of this type negatively impacts the market value of a house no matter how attractive it is.

In California, sellers are required to disclose to buyers if there's been a death in the house in the last three years. Some states have no laws requiring this, or specify less time required for disclosure.

Cindi Hagley sells property in California, but has served as a consultant on sales of houses perceived as being haunted throughout the country. She learned firsthand as a child that ghosts do exist. One night a voice screamed, "you can't get in here right now." When she went to the bathroom she found the tub filled 4 inches with individually lit matches. Her father questioned her and siblings about who did it, even when it was obvious it would have taken days to light so many matches. He had a hard time believing his ordinary home in Rome, Ohio was actually haunted.

The first stop for Cindi Hagley, is a visit to the property which is allegedly haunted, just to make sure it actually is. If it is, she helps the sellers decide whether or not to tell the buyers. Her advice is to wait until they have a few offers before disclosing about the situation.

A Colorado home had several deaths that occurred throughout the years. The family living there had seen shapes on the stairs, the piano playing by itself and radios turning on without the help of a human agent. She feared there was a demonic aspect to the presence, and she stepped away from the case, even though the property did sell.

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Polly Judd House

Some buyers just don't care if a house has a reputation of being haunted, in some cases it's actually an enhancement if it's tied to a well-known story.

A story like the one connected to a Victorian home overlooking Polly Judd Park in Spokane, Washington. After World War II, Thomas and Polly Judd took in soldiers coming back from the war. Their daughter lived in the home until the 1970s, and when she moved out it became a rental. Inevitably strange characters called it home, and then there were the troubled souls who decided to depart this world by their own hand within its walls. Bad fortune followed the homeowners like a faithful puppy.

Marianne Bornhoft had first hand experience with the house when she sold it. Once she had a photographer shoot the house for the real estate listing, when she noticed a chandelier was casting shadows of three upside crosses on the wall.

During an open house, a buyer told her something or someone shoved her when she was touring through the basement, where she had been trapped for hours. On another afternoon the creepy chandelier started to swing by itself.

Built in 1905, it had its weird history according to some neighbors; some verifiable, some not. Allegedly  it was built on a forgotten cemetery, when graves that were supposed to be moved to Greenwood Cemetery weren't. During the 1920s it doubled as a speakeasy during Prohibition owing to its proximity to a railroad track, now defunct, where the booze was smuggled in. And then there are rumors of violent death.

But let's go back to when Polly Judd lived there during the 1950s and 60s. After the war Polly visited Japan, and became so enamored with the emperor's gardener named Nagao Sakurai, that she brought him to Spokane where he oversaw a similar garden installed in Manito Park. Mr. Sakurai suffered a heart attack, and he convalesced at the Judd home. He built her a personal Japanese garden as thanks for her care. Only remnants are left of the ponds and fountains.

Present day the neighbors call it the House of Broken Marriages, because starting in 1977 is when the real weirdness started to occur. The first renter was rumored to beat his girlfriend after getting high and drunk. The odds weren't in his favor, and he eventually died in the home from an overdose. Tenants came and went, more than what would be considered normal. One man was said to have hung himself on the second floor.

It was bought in the 1980s by a young couple who spent $500K in renovations. Their marriage went belly up, and so did their investment.

In 1999, Gavin Cooley bought the house. His daughter Cara recalls that the doors would open by themselves, including a trapdoor leading to the basement which would slam shut unexpectedly. One night she saw her uncle pointing a rifle at a door in the basement that was bulging inward, but there was nothing on the other side.

Mr. Cooley would hear something crash upstairs, but when he would check there was nothing wrong. This would happen several times, leaving no doubt this was not an old house settling. Perhaps the crashing noises were a foreshadowing of what would happen to the Cooley marriage, which ended in divorce by the time they moved out in 2005.

Two years later, the new owners got a call from Mr. Cooley, who rambled and said, "You know, my life has gotten so much better since I got out of that house, Gavin. There was something bad about that house. My marriage was bad. Everything got dark since I moved to that house."

These owners moved out around 2010, and the house went on the market until 2012 when a family from Montana moved in. The family's son Charlie said creepy things happened especially in the basement where he slept. He described it this way: "Sometimes the doors will just fly open all of a sudden even if they’re closed. And one time, I was sleeping in that room and the door that’s closest to the bed right there, my head was on the door and the doorknob turned, so I just went upstairs and slept on the couch."

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Not all dark happenings inside a home are documented

Kelly a realtor in Colorado has "home energy clearers" who she calls when a prime property just wouldn't sell for mysterious reasons. At first she was skeptical, but after many years of using this method and it working, she just doesn't think it's goofy.

She said she's learned to listen when other agents told her: "It just doesn't feel right," about a particular property.

One time she met with sellers and toured with them through their 19th-century Victorian home. Everything was fine until they got to the basement. The family cat which had followed the group through the house, refused to go down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, her skin prickled and she felt "something was really wrong", even though the basement itself was unremarkable.

She asked the owners about it, and they commented that no one wanted to go down there, animal or human. She decided it was time for a phone call to the clearers. The one she hired for the job, later told her the basement had been the scene of a police raid during Prohibition. It seemed illegal alcohol was either being stored or produced. A shootout took place and someone got killed. After the clearer did her magic, the cat had no problem visiting the basement.

Another time she was contacted by clients she had sold a house to, who described they were seeing a "white-shrouded, kind of wispy sort of being." Everyone in the family had seen it. She offered to send a clearer, but the family said they like the ghost, and had even named it Lucy.

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