Many (most?) states require real estate companies to disclose when a violent death occurred in a property that is for sale. That inevitably lowers the value of the property, because of the stigma of living in a "death house."
While there are lots of folks that refuse to live in a "death house," there are also plenty that realize there's nothing spooky about death. These consumers, shown proof of proper crime-scene cleanup, will gladly pay a discounted price for a perfectly acceptable property.
I propose a service (website: DeathHouses.com?) where these "death houses" can be listed, so that the logically-minded buyer can search them for discounted purchase.
The benefit to the consumer is a customized list of cheaper-than-market properties. The benefit to the real estate agency is a wider audience of consumers for otherwise narrowly-attractive properties.-- awesomest, Aug 03 2007 Disclosure by sellers http://www.bankrate...004/disclosures.aspRequirements to disclose murders, suicide, AIDS deaths and/or ghosts (!) have been dropped, per this article, due to privacy reasons. [DrCurry, Aug 03 2007] (+) I run into plenty of people who say they could never live in my house because we back up to a cemetery.
I just think of them as quiet neighbors.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Aug 03 2007 [Beep]: I considered that, but then again, wouldn't the buyer, if they simply wanted to flip the house, still be bound by the discloser requirement? In which case, this service would really only serve those looking for a live-in property. On the other hand, I don't know that I'm opposed to someone making a profit from ghoulishness.-- awesomest, Aug 03 2007 Would that have to be a bad thing? You might not want to live in a house where a family member died, but would you want it sitting empty rather than having decent people move in?-- nomocrow, Aug 03 2007 There is no reason to restrict such a discounted properties list to death houses. Other categories could be "party houses", "high voltage powerline houses", "previous owner had incontinent cats houses" and so on.-- bungston, Aug 03 2007 There's already a common knowledge built into pricing houses based on neighborhoods. This makes sense.
[Galbinus]: How's your gardening?-- shapu, Aug 03 2007 [shapu] I have to use a machete and chainsaw for pest control.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Aug 03 2007 "Many (most?) states require real estate companies to disclose when a violent death occurred in a property that is for sale."
Um, really? Not to my knowledge. This is the last thing the seller wants to disclose, for the very reason you mention - it will hurt the sale price. It has no material relevance, after all.-- DrCurry, Aug 03 2007 It will hurt the sales price, it will help the sales price... the point is to get it at a discount, not relying on buyer ignorance that somebody died in there.
If it makes it cheaper to buy the house, it is helping the price, if you are the buyer, and not the damn speculator, or some deadbeat.-- twitch, Aug 03 2007 So if I want the buyer to knock something off the price of a house, I just have to kill someone there? Got it.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Aug 03 2007 If there were a discussion board, people could use it to post "information" such as known deaths / suicides, possible nearby toxic waste dumps, indian graveyards, etc. Solid fact, baseless rumor, and semiliterate cursing would all be welcome. Inofmration would be limited to the house itself, not the current owners. The owners of the house would not like this as it would cut into profit. However I am not sure one can slander a house.-- bungston, Aug 03 2007 It's not too often you get to refer to potential real estate customers as "vultures."
This reminds me, I'm out of lime.-- elhigh, Aug 07 2007 I know someone who bought (without telling his wife) a murderer's car. The car may have been used for transporting a corpse - that was never clear.-- hippo, Aug 07 2007 I desperately want to have enough money to buy repo cars, hoping to find drugs to turn into the cops and make myself famous, or money to make myself wealthier.-- shapu, Aug 07 2007 twitch: I'm really confused: why do you assume that house sellers are speculators or deadbeats? After all, if you buy this house now, you will be the seller come five, ten or twenty years' time. Or do you intend to die in it, and have this apply to your heirs?-- DrCurry, Aug 07 2007 All I needed to see was the title ++-- nomadic_wonderer, Aug 07 2007 I thought this was going to be a gunshot sound wave detector which then flips a "for sale" sign on the front of the house.-- random_patenter_syndrome_victim, Dec 15 2009 I like this idea, now. Some years later. Duh. (eligh's anno is strangely right on the borderline of the real estate debacle timeline. )-- blissmiss, Dec 15 2009 The problem is that these houses tend to be in the wrong neighborhoods.-- RayfordSteele, Apr 27 2016 random, halfbakery