Haunted Houses: Dream Homes Or Scream Homes?

Have you ever wondered how people feel about living in or buying a haunted house? Are you one of the 44% of people who believe they’ve lived in a haunted house? Are you one of the 73% of people who would consider purchasing a one? Or are you one of the 11% who say no way you’d live in one?

According to a Realtor.com survey, 54% of men said they were unlikely to ever consider living in a house that was rumored to be haunted, compared to 70% of women. A survey by Clever Real Estate  of over 1,000 Americans showed that a lower price, a better neighborhood, more room did tempt people to overlook a haunted house:

• Approximately 40% of respondents said they would be open to buying a haunted house is the “price was right.”
• Some 35% said they would purchase a haunted house if that entailed a move to a better neighborhood.
• 32% said they would consider purchasing a haunted home if it that extra square footage.
• 29% said they’d purchase a haunted home if it had more bedrooms.

If you were to purchase a haunted house, what would you pay for it? Here’s what a realtor.com survey found:

• 1% of home buyers would pay above market value.
• 11% of home buyers would pay full market value.
• 34% of home buyers would pay 1-30% below market value.
• 22% of home buyers would pay 31-50% below market value.
• 19% of home buyers would pay 51% or less below market value.

Should Buying A Haunted House Terrify You?

Whatever your feelings about buying and living in a haunted house, here’s what MoneyWise says about why you should be terrified to buy a haunted house:

• Buying or selling a haunted house can be a legal and financial mess. In some areas, sellers are legally obligated to tell potential buyers if a home is said to be haunted, whether they ask or not. In other areas this is not a material disclosure, so you really need to know the rules in your area.
• Houses with a reputation for being haunted see lower value and can be difficult, if not almost impossible to sell.

According to The Real Estate Witch:

• Other aspects of homeownership are scarier to most homeowners than ghosts, including mold (57%); foundation issues (56%); termites (54%); asbestos (54%); and water damage (54%).
• Americans also fear floods (54%), fires (49%), and other safety hazards, yet many lack basic safety features in their home. For example, 66% don’t have a radon detector, 45% lack an alarm system, 40% don’t have a carbon monoxide detector, 38% lack a fire extinguisher, and 29% don’t have smoke detectors.
• Nearly half of Americans (48%) would rather purchase a haunted house than live within one mile of a waste management facility.
• American would rather live with ghosts than near the the scene of a violent crime (47%); a former meth lab(45%); or within one mile of a prison (44%).
• Americans are most likely to consider purchasing a haunted house if it has a lower sale price (63%), is in a safer neighborhood (57%), or has friendly ghosts (53%).

For more information about the 2021 Haunted Houses Survey by the Real Estate Witch, click here.

HauntedHouses.com is a great resources for all places haunted — cities, houses, forts, hotels, jails, ships, and more. And they provide an easy to use map to search state by state for haunted places.

And if you’re looking for a scary good time in the Charlotte region, here are 13 haunted attractions within two hours driving distance of Charlotte from Axios.com.

No reason to be spooked if you’ve been thinking about buying or selling a Greater Charlotte area home (haunted or not) during the 2021 Halloween season.  Nina Hollander/Carolinas Realty Partners with Coldwell Banker can promise you a a terrifyingly easy and stress free home search and/or sale process, just as we’ve been doing for Charlotte region home buyers and sellers for 20+ years.