Home buyers who can stomach some misfortune in a home’s past may be able to find big discounts. For example, buyers can expect to pay 10 percent to 25 percent off the regular market home price for a stigmatized home, according to real estate consultant Randall Bell of Bell Anderson & Saunders. And depending on how bad the crime was that occurred at the home, the more a home buyer can expect in discount to the price.

“In large, it all comes down to finding the right discount to entice a buyer to accept the property along with its tainted history,” Bell told AOL Real Estate.

But for some, the crime that happened may be too much to stomach, regardless of the big discount. Some buyers worry about the resale value and what others will think too. Also, homes where crimes took place tend to linger on the market from two to seven years longer than they would without a tainted past, according to Bell.

For example, a Southern California mansion that was the place where 39 cult members from Heaven’s Gate killed themselves sold for $668,000 two years following the suicides, which was less than half of the $1.6 million list price before the suicides occurred. Also, the home where O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman was killed lingered on the market for two years before selling for $590,000—$200,000 less than the initial asking price.

However, some buyers say they are willing to overlook a home’s shady past. “It may have a terrible history,” says Chris Butler, who purchased a split-level ranch nestled in a forest in Akron, Ohio, that once belonged to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and was the site of Dahmer’s first murder. “But the house didn’t kill anybody.”

 

The author of this article is: realtormag.realtor.org

 See the original post at: http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2012/08/06/stigmatized-properties-can-offer-big-bargains

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