If you found your dream home, would the possibility of ghosts
make you think twice about making an offer? What if the for-sale sign listed
the property as “definitely not haunted”? Would this unnecessary disclosure give
you an even bigger pause?
Margot Bloomstein snapped this photo of a house in a Boston,
Mass. suburb with a sign declaring the property was for sale with the addition of, “NOT HAUNTED”
in bold print. Bloomstein said she has so many questions, and so do we.
For starters, why would someone announce a home was ghost-free? No need to declare something that doesn’t exist. Was the house previously
haunted? Was an exorcism performed there, releasing the ghosts from the confines
of the home? Or is the whole neighborhood haunted and this is the only ghost-free
home on the market?
But by insisting that something is not true, it makes it
feel true, you know?
At any rate, if it were previously haunted, why would a home
seller or realtor declare that information, especially in Massachusetts, where
the home is located? Zillow reports that Massachusetts sellers don’t need to
declare if the property has been "psychologically affected," which includes parapsychological or supernatural phenomenon.
For that matter, Massachusetts also does not require sellers to disclose if the
property was the site of a "felony, suicide or homicide." Massachusetts
homeowners may want to start Googling their homes and its previous owners now
to see if they’ve been in the news -- or
not, if that sort of thing really freaks you out -- because your realtor probably didn’t tell you.
So, the seller does not need to tell the world any of this,
which leads to the point: What are they trying to say here???
According to Twitter, stating that a house is haunted is quite
normal in other parts of the country, like in New Orleans. Again, not something
they need to disclose, but do, anyway. It makes you wonder if these home sellers
are advertising this information for the clout. Is this maybe attractive to the
real estate hunters of gothic NOLA homes?
Either way, we’re not buying it -- the house, the sign, any of it.
Time to buy some sage, just in case there's something about our house we don't know...