Resident Evil? How to Sell a Haunted House

Halloween is very nearly upon us. The pumpkins, fancy dress parties, and trick or treaters knocking on your door expecting sweets. Whether you believe in the concept of Halloween or not, this time of year always gets everyone talking about the supernatural, the possibilities ghosts, and haunted houses.

Do you think your home might be haunted? Perhaps your flat gets strangely cold at night? Maybe you do have a resident evil? You could have a Poltergeist, a lost soul, a Kobold, a Bhoot, a Churel or a Bogle living in your home with you? Is your house the one place in your neighbourhood all the threat or treaters avoid because of all the rumours relating to it being genuinely a creepy place.

For some homeowners, a resident ghost would be a delight. A property that is haunted could be seen as a virtue, not a curse. Being haunted gives a house an air of mystery, intrigue, and history of a place. Having a resident ghost is almost an expected part of such a package when buying a period property with and an attached history.

Selling a house with a spooky history

You might not be afraid of ghosts and ghouls or see your resident evil as a positive characteristic of your property, but the reality is it can be a real problem for homeowners when it comes to selling a house that has a spooky history.

Trying to sell property that is haunted and has a chequered past can result in a 20% drop in the price of the property itself and can be twice as difficult to sell compared to a normal property according to research conducted by Move with Us, a network of independent estate agents.

They discovered that 83% of estate agents felt that a home which a has a noticeable past can lose between 11-20% of its value as potential UK home buyers are scared off buying a home with a dodgy history. This includes properties built on top of a graveyard, a former crime scene or as we mentioned rumours the property is haunted.

Tips for selling a haunted house

So you want to sell your house, but it is haunted and you are worried it will put off potential buyers.

Here are a few tips we would suggest to help you sell your haunted house:

Call the Ghostbusters!

So there is something strange in your neighbourhood? Who you going to call….Ghostbusters?? Actually, before you go calling anyone, you should figure out if your house is really haunted.

Check your floorboards or doors which might be just squeaking, check your windows or doors for any drafts of air, check your pipes for any strange noises and fix any potential flickering lights. Another thing to do is to make sure you are getting enough sleep as sleep deprivation can cause delirium and hallucinations. Just try to think logically about anything throughout the house that could be creating any situation that could be wrongly interpreted as paranormal activity.

We are not questioning whether your house is haunted or not we are just suggesting you eliminate all rational possibilities first. If you are sure that your house is haunted then now its time to call the Ghostbusters.

Well maybe not, but I’m sure there are companies out there providing these sorts of services. The other option, if you are plagued by an unruly ghoul, is an exorcism. Every Anglican diocese in the UK has a specialist team of exorcists ready to vanquish evil spirits for you.

Know your legal obligations

Why not just don’t mention the fact that your house is haunted? Most people don’t believe in ghosts anyway, right, so why say anything? There are sceptics out there who believe that ghosts are just figments of the imagination, they do not actually exist? So again why mention the fact that the house is haunted?

Looking into the legal obligations here when it comes to selling a haunted house it appears that there is no direct law stating that paranormal or haunted presences must be mentioned.

However legally you cannot mislead or give false statements regarding the sale of your property. The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (which replaced the Property Misdescriptions Act 1991) states that there is a general duty to avoid making false or misleading statements.

This means that if a buyer enquires into whether there has been any paranormal activity or asks if you believe the house is haunted you would be obliged to say yes if you believe that it is. If you are aware of the house being haunted and you give the buyer misleading answer and they bought your house then you have knowingly misrepresented your property — though it might be difficult to prove you knew it was haunted in the first place.

Also, estate agents are required by the NAEA to declare ‘anything that has occurred at the property that would affect the transactional decision of the average buyer’. Even though this does not directly mention ghosts, they do need to disclose any suicides and murders that have taken place in the house at some point in history.

Not mentioning a house is haunted has not yet landed anyone in the UK in legal issues to date. However, in the USA they view this very differently. In a famous case of Stambovsky v Ackley in 1991, it was established that the owner had not mentioned the house he was selling was haunted and so the sale was duly rescinded – even though the house was one a ghost tour of the neighbourhood and its poltergeists were well known.

Make the property less spooky looking

It might seem pretty basic, but regardless of whether you have a resident evil or not ensure that your property is tidied up as a messy property could put off potential buyers. Make sure the rooms in your house are clutter-free because clutter makes a room lot smaller and makes it harder for a buyer to imagine living in your home. Make sure you pack away your collection of shrunken heads, bottled specimens, stuffed animals and/or creepy china dolls you may have.

The stigma attached to a haunted house is that it is dark and creepy. Try to avoid this stereotypical look by making your house as light and airy as possible by pulling back the curtains and removing any items that might block light such as vases or photo frames on window sills.

Also, as we mentioned earlier, try to fix and eliminate anything that could be misconstrued as paranormal activity like creaky floorboards, dripping taps, drafts of air and keep the property well heated avoiding the typical cold chill a creepy house would have.

Use a sell house fast company

So you want to sell your house, but it is haunted and you are worried that will scare off potential buyers? If this is the case, one option is to not put the property on the open market at all but to go straight to a sell your house fast company like National Homebuyers.

A quick house sale company can purchase your haunted home for cash in as little as 7 days regardless of what skeletons you have in your closet or what type of ghost resides in your property. These type of companies will buy any house, in any condition within the UK, in a time-scale that best suits you and your resident evil. The benefit of a company like National Homebuyers is that they use their own funds and don’t rely on mortgages or investors, meaning they can help you sell your house fast stress-free with no fear of any property chain breaking down due to a pesky ghost scaring off the buyer.

So if you have a house or property anywhere in the UK that isn’t selling because it’s haunted then why not contact National Homebuyers who will buy your house, ghosts and all, for cash fast.

Sell your haunted house

To get a spookily fast cash offer for your haunted home then why not apply online or request a call back from our friendly customer care team? Or, if you prefer, simply give us a call on 08000 443 911 and we will guide you through our we buy any house process.