If someone died in a house or apartment you were about to buy or rent, would you want to know? Roy Condrey thinks so, which is why he developed the website www.diedinhouse.com.
A South Carolinian employed in the computer programming industry, Condrey owns some rental properties that are overseen by a management company. Several years ago he started thinking about deaths in homes when someone asked him if one of his properties was haunted.
Curious, Condrey did some research and discovered – rather than confirmation of a haunting in the aforementioned property – a death in another of his properties.
During his research, Condrey discovered he wasn’t the only curious one. Many others were asking questions on the internet about deaths in homes.
“I can’t explain why it bothers people,” Condrey says of home deaths – particularly violent deaths such as murder or suicide. “There are people who believe in ghosts and there are people who may not believe in ghosts, but they just don’t want to live in a home that has that history. Everyone has their own reasons and opinions about it, but it does bother people.”
Those might be good reasons. Condrey says that death in a home, especially a violent death, can decrease the home’s value by 25 percent and increase its selling time by up to 50 percent longer than comparable homes. In the real estate business, a house where a murder or suicide occurred is even called a “stigmatized property.”
But in many states, a death in a home – no matter how it occurred – is not deemed a “material fact” to be legally disclosed by the sellers, such as would be a material defect in the plumbing or roofing. Tennessee is such a state. According to TN Law 66-5-207, “No action shall arise against an owner or agent for not disclosing a homicide, felony or suicide.”
So, for example, you could move a new area and buy a house, only to discover later that a murder-suicide occurred in it. These sorts of incidents have happened, says Condrey; they are detailed on his website.
Reports from this website include:
- Death at an address
- Meth activity, including labs, “dumpsites” or “chemical and glassware” seizures
- Indicator of Registered Sex Offender Living at the Address
- Number of Registered Sex Offenders Living in the Area and a List of Addresses
- Fire Incidents Related to the Address
- List of Names Associated to the Address
- Property and Neighborhood Information
- Hazardous Flood Zone Information
There are other reasons for not wanting such a home, as well.
“People gawk at these homes,” he says, noting that murder-suicides draw particular interest. “Especially during Halloween, the house becomes a tourist attraction.”
A nearby example of a death in a condo occurred in 2009, when former Titans quarterback Steve McNair was killed in a murder-suicide by his mistress in Nashville. A subsequent tenant was not made aware of the condo’s history and was upset at the omission, as detailed on www.diedinhouse.com.
The Nashville where former Titans quarterback Steve McNair was killed in a murder-suicide by his mistress./Contributed
In an even more famous case, the serial killer who called himself B.T.K. – for bind, torture, kill – murdered 10 people in Wichita, Kansas.
According to the New York Times, Diane Boyle unwittingly bought the house where B.T.K. had killed Shirley Vian Relford in 1977. The Realtor never told her and she found out, months after the purchase, from a neighbor. She was furious.
Condrey says that researching a death in a home is “easier said than done” by oneself. So for $14.99, Died in House does the research for you.
“Our job is not to persuade you how to feel about it,” he continues. “We just think you should have all the information before you invest in the property and then decide how you feel.”
There’s a footnote to Condrey’s initial research that led to the founding of www.diedinhouse.com. After discovering that someone had indeed died in one of his properties, he asked the subsequent tenants if they had experienced anything paranormal.
He says, “The husband said, ‘Yes, as a matter of fact the front room is where we have our computer and something catches the corner of my eye by the door.’”
The husband told Condrey that he didn’t want to mention the sightings to his wife.
“But then one day his wife mentioned it to him,” Condrey says.
A house in Pennsylvania where a man killed his wife and then himself. A subsequent owner went to court to have the sale revoked after discovering the murder-suicide, but she lost the case./Contributed
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.