A U.S. website that allows property owners and renters to discover who has died in their home is set to be expanded to other countries.
Co-CEO and President Roy Condrey spent one year creating the www.DiedInHouse.com website after a tenant thought his rented property was haunted. He thought those details had to be disclosed by law by real estate agents or sellers, but discovered there’s no such legislation in place.
For US$11.99 owners get a report that reveals if someone has died in any American property. It also provides specific details.
“I found out that someone had died in my house before I bought it and I assumed it was part of the disclosure process, but found out that it was not. I discovered that most states do not have any laws to disclose a death occurrence in a property no matter how it occurred (murder, suicide, accident, illness or natural). I discovered that there is not a single place to go and that the research is very time consuming,” he said.
The site searches through millions of sources and records to see if anyone passed away while at a property. Most interest has so far come from people in California and Texas.
As a death can reduce a property’s value by up to a quarter, real estate agents were initially wary of the site, but some are now using it, Condrey said.
“It would bother me if I knew. For instance, I couldn’t live in a house where there was a murder-suicide,” he added.
The site, which is also popular with ghost hunters, has had 54,000 page views and nearly 8,000 likes on Facebook.
According to a study by two business professors at Wright University, houses where murder or suicide have occurred can take 50 percent longer to sell and fetch 2.4 percent less than comparable homes.
The London house where singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse died in July 2011 sold in 2012 for more than US$1million less than its original asking price.
This story was published by OPP Connect and is reproducted as part of an editorial partnership between OPP Connect and PropertyGuru Group.
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