Death on a property

[Ricardo]

Tony,

Have you ever bought a house where there was a recent death.? Do you approach it as your regular deals? Or do you make a price adjustment on your ARV? Or purchase price? Or do you do anything special to the property like replace the room where he/she died?

the property I have an opportunity to buy, was a 75 year old owner that was dying of cancer, and he decided to commit suicide. From the agents comment, "75 year old man was dying of cancer and committed suicide, self inflicted gunshot wound. and there was blood everywhere but got cleaned up." We do plan to do a kick ass rehab. maybe do more to it, like add a horse fence.

ARV is $400k (maybe up to $425k, but this comped like nothing happened to the property)
Repairs $60k
Purchase Price right now $240k

[Tony Alvarez]

Whenever someone dies at a property whether it’s murder, suicide or natural causes present real estate law dictates that it must be disclosed to your buyer for up to 36 months after the event occurred.

Typically, a violent death on a property will create a stigma, which may affect the property’s value or saleability adversely. Whether or not this particular property will be affected really depends on the level of demand for real estate in this particular target market and the individual’s perception reaction of the potential buyers for your property at the time when the property comes to market.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to anticipate the level of damage to a property’s market value as a result of this stigma (violent death) until you actually bring the property to the market and the market responds to your listing.

For your information, typically, if a death occurs anywhere on the lot, but outside the physical structure of the dwelling, I do not believe the same disclosure applies. Unfortunately this will not help you because I think this individual committed suicide within the structure.

Congratulations on taking on such an exciting and unpredictable situation. It shows that you have a high level of intelligence and the cajones that I had imagined you had since we met.

Good luck on this venture, I hope you get top dollar regardless of this poor soul who took his own life.