Having an out of style exterior or interior can depreciate your home value yet there's something more that really kills it and drives away any potential buyer.
CNN Money says a homicide is a bigger home value killer. In fact, a non-natural death that took place in a house drops 10-25 percent of its home value, according to Real Estate Broker Randall Bell, specializing in real estate damage valuation.
But, how does a death incident depreciates the value of a house? Bell shared it's all about perception.
"When you have an image that someone was murdered, it can be uncomfortable when you are living there," Bell added.
Homes that have high-profile deaths like Adam Lanza's house, O.J. and Nicole Brown Simpson's condo, and the gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School have reportedly lost their value because of how they are perceived after the incident. In fact, the Lanza home in Newtown, Connecticut was demolished as it totally lost its value.
"Some circumstances are so horrific...that the property loses all value," Bell said.
Moreover, Yahoo! said that people experience psychological distress thinking about a home where murder happened. People would think there is a higher crime rate and a lower degree of security and safety. The area becomes a little less desirable to live in. Murder does affect home prices then, even if the murder did not directly take place in that particular house you are interested in but in the neighborhood, Fred Schebesta, co-founder and director of Finder.com, told Yahoo! Real Estate.
This is the most valid reason that disclosure is a must in the real estate. Although disclosure laws vary by state and county, some are very strict about requiring the seller to disclose everything about their home, including its history. Builder Online says half of the states require a full disclosure of homicide incidents. To date, California and New York are the strictest about disclosures.
On the other hand, there are some buyers who don't care about a home's history at all. According to Samantha DeBianchi, luxury real estate broker of Southern Florida, says it depends on the personality of the buyer. Some are completely fine with it while some won't even step their foot into the home with a crime scene.
Indeed, finding buyers who are willing, not just to pay for the price of a home with a horrible past but to accept it including its criminal history, is a real struggle. The pressure now is on the real estate's shoulders.
