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The scariest Halloween horror story is the story of the neighbors about the bloody past of the apartment or house in which you live. It would be unpleasant to know that a cheerful company of students has been poisoned in your kitchen. Or that many years ago, a scene of jealousy played out in your bathroom, followed by the drowning of an unfaithful partner … Should you avoid the apartments in which the death occurred?
Is it possible to catch a putrid smell if many days have passed since the crime? And how to protect yourself if you are planning to buy a home, but do not want to run into a “bad” apartment?
The owner of the funeral home Caitlin Doughty urges not to be afraid of death — this natural process that accompanies all life on earth. In the book Will My Cat Eat Me? she answers the most popular questions about death and shares what no realtor would willingly tell.
Silence of realtors
Pro Tip: If you really want to live in a place where absolutely no one has ever died, then buy an apartment in a new building. Preferably one that was built before your eyes.
Because the reality is not pleasant: if you live in a charming pre-war house or a huge high-rise building, it is quite possible that you watch TV and eat popcorn where someone took their last breath. And no one is obligated to tell you about it.
Any realtor would advise not to talk about the death that occurred in the house, as this can lead to property stigmatization
No salesperson wants a buyer’s fantasy to be captured by scenes of monstrous crimes and torrents of blood, like those that gushed from the elevator in the movie based on Stephen King’s novel The Shining.
Even decay will leave no trace
People have died and are dying in many houses and apartments, and there are many more of them than you can imagine. It probably happened even in the very place where you are now reading this article. Previously, people often left this world surrounded by family things, and not in hospitals, so if your house is more than a hundred years old, its walls have probably seen death.
If someone died peacefully at home, most likely, relatives or hospice workers came to him. After the body of the deceased was taken from the house before decomposition began. This is not the kind of death that would make a ghost story.
But even if, for some reason, things did get to the point of decomposition, an experienced cleaning team is able to wipe everything down to sparkling cleanliness — and you will never guess that once a corpse was decomposing in the room that has now become your bachelor’s lair.
Reputation at home
Speaking the language of realtors, the so-called material facts play a big role. Material facts are anything that can influence a buyer’s desire to buy a property. For example, foundation cracks or invisible structural problems.
Depending on where you live, a violent death—let’s say a murder—may fall into the category of material facts, and therefore the fact of its existence must be disclosed. But peaceful or accidental deaths are usually not material facts.
A house where a horrific murder has taken place sometimes gets a bad rap
This is also facilitated by reports of violent crimes or even ghost stories. The seller will most likely not want to tell you about the triple murder that took place within these walls in 2008, but he will not tell you, and sooner or later you will learn about it from your neighbors — every house and apartment has a “reputation”.
Sometimes death is home love
However, the best advice that Caitlin Doughty can give is this: accept the fact that one day you can live in a house or apartment where someone has died. And you’ll be all right. Doughty’s mother, a realtor, sold the house where a ninety-year-old woman died.
She informed potential buyers about this — because if she had not told, the neighbors would have done it, and they went home to think. The buyers returned, still wanting to buy the house, because the former owner clearly loved it very much, since she agreed to die in it.
If you’re still horrified at the thought that someone has died in your potential future home, get used to asking your landlords, realtors, and neighbors questions like this.