WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Haunted Real Estate 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.200 Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh. There's Chuck. 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:10.440 This is Josh talking, and there's Chuck sitting there waiting 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:15.640 on standby to launch this short stuff about real estate. 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:20.960 But wait, wait scary real estate. Yeah, and this is 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:22.960 one that you were pretty convinced we had done before. 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:26.520 We may have talked about it, I think I but 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:29.040 I cannot, for the life of me figure out where 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:31.720 Like we don't have We've never done an episode on 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:34.879 selling your house. We've never done one on haunted houses, 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.120 like we've done haunted house attractions, we did ghosts. But 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:41.560 I don't know where this would have come up. Yeah, 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.640 someone will know. Yeah, they'll be like, you guys really 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:48.320 screwed up again. This time you did a short stuff 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:50.360 with something you've done already. I quit. How could you 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:52.159 be such idiots? I'll never listen to you, and I 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:54.800 question everything you say from now on and everything you've 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:59.560 ever said, and stopped being so liberal. I hate you. 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:03.320 Stop talking about politics. Oh man, election, Your emails have 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:05.679 been fun. But this is about something else. This is 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:09.120 uh the scary season, and this is about something that 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:12.080 I was kind of curious of, uh, not that I've 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:14.840 ever looked at a haunted house. But I just kind 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:18.200 of wondered if your house is haunted, or at least 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:20.600 you think it is, and you believe in that kind 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:23.479 of thing, if you have to tell a potential home buyer, 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:26.440 if you have to disclose that, like, you know, the 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:30.039 basement links some the windows are fairly drafty, and there's 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:35.440 a spectrum the third floor. What excuse me, I didn't 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:42.240 catch that? Did you say a specter? The specter says, what, Yeah, 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:46.080 so your house is pretty old. Do you suspect it's haunted? No, 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:49.040 although it's funny you mentioned that last week. They were 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:52.440 like there was one night where a few weird things 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:54.360 happened and they weren't like noises. They were just like 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:56.480 all of a sudden, something would be in a weird 0:01:56.480 --> 0:02:00.720 part of the house. Or uh, there were just a 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:02.960 few I can't remember what they were, but three very 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:06.640 not intuitive placements of things where I was like, did 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:10.080 you put this there? And it's like, uh what? And 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:12.400 then suddenly you guys look like little or Fananny with 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:16.800 cartoon sweat jumping off your foreheads and your pupils were gone. Maybe, 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:18.360 but and you know what kind of laugh We're like, 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:20.920 is this house haunted, but I think after, you know, 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:23.399 thirteen or fourteen years, we would have seen something by now. 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:26.359 So so I agreed, And sorry to get off truck 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:27.840 because I know this is short. So, but have you 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:32.639 watched The Haunting of bly Manner yet? Oh? My god, 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:35.600 is it really scary? Maybe the best of the best 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:39.160 anyone's ever put to film. It's so well done. It's 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:41.760 so great. And I wasn't a fan of the Haunting 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:45.799 of hill House. This is everything you wanted the Haunting 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:48.800 of hill House and basically every ghost movie or TV 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:53.560 show to be. It's so good man, you're going to 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:56.760 love it. I put it on par with like the 0:02:56.800 --> 0:03:03.560 others and the Orphanage. Um, it's just beautifully done. Okay, awesome, 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:06.680 I'll check it out. Okay, I didn't see the other one. Yeah, 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:08.160 I watched a little of it and then just kind 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:12.040 of stopped. But but check this one out. Okay, all right. So, 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:14.280 so the question you posed was if you think your 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:16.200 house is haunted, do you have to disclose it? And 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:19.560 the short answer is no, you don't have to disclose it. 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.520 But the longer answer is, if you don't disclose it, 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:25.680 and you actually do think your house is haunted and 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:29.519 everybody else thinks your house is haunted, then you could 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.040 actually get sued if the person you sold your house 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:34.920 to finds out that the house is haunted and decides 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:36.880 they don't want to own a haunted house, and you 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:38.840 might have to give their money back. And now you 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:41.240 own two houses, the one you bought after you sold 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.080 that house and the one you sold originally. And that's 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.360 actually based on case law from the ninety eighties in 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:49.840 New York, isn't it. Yeah, there was a woman named 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:53.600 Helen Actley, and she and her family lived in an 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:59.760 old Victorian an upstate New York. And she claimed that 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:03.320 they had ghosts there and she didn't keep it quiet. 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:06.680 She was in the newspaper, she was in reader's digest. 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:09.480 She kind of talked to anyone who would listen about 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:13.520 they were on the ghost tour of the town. And uh, 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:15.760 everybody knew this, I guess except for the guy that 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:21.280 bought it one, Jeffrey Stambowski. And in nine he came 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:23.640 from New York City bought the place for a tidy 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:26.560 sum of six and fifty grand. Back in the eighties, 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:29.200 there was a lot. Yeah, totally, I mean, this must 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:31.960 be quite a house, and then the neighbors were like, oh, 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:34.560 so you bought the old haunted actually place and he 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:40.600 was like what and he got mad and uh sued 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:43.919 and originally the judge said no, sorry, it's kind of 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.400 buy or beware, and then that was overturned in an appeal. 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:49.880 And I think you should read the part of the 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:54.120 decision there. It's pretty good. Okay, this is me doing 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:57.279 an appeals court judge from New York reversing the decision 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:03.039 in Stambovski versus Actley. Okay, yes, whether the source of 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:08.760 the spectral apparitions seen by defendant Sela a parapsychic or psychogenic. 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:13.440 Having reported the presence in both a national publication Rioto's 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:19.359 Darn Dressed and the local press in nine and two, respectively, 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:24.440 wrote the court defendant is stopped prevented from going back 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:27.120 on our word to deny their existence, and as a 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:32.160 matter of law, the house is haunted. So for those 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:36.359 of you listening, this is just a little preview of 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:40.120 what's to come for our annual Halloween episode. I'm down 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.440 to one accent. Basically, I got one accent. He's doing 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:49.200 accents now, everybody twelve years in, I'm doing accent. It's 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:51.480 the best news that I've had in a long time. 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:54.599 Jash is doing accent. Well, I was doing it for 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:56.800 the Halloween episode, and I just thought I'd trot it 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.120 out for this. Yeah, because in real time we just 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:01.240 read that. But this will serve as a little teaser. 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:03.520 So just hold onto your hats for that one, everyone, 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:05.719 And in fact, maybe we should take a little break 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:08.440 and then I can get myself together and then come 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:39.560 back right after this. Okay, So chok. That judge reversed 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:42.360 the decision and staid, nope, I think you mean magistrate, 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.880 mrs actly, you have to give that six dollars back 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:52.880 to Mr Strombovski and um Or Stanbovsky. I'm sorry. And 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:55.920 she she did, she had she was stuck with two houses. Now. 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.080 The reason why, you know, traditionally with law, it's buyer 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:03.200 beware cavy emptor, which is basically saying like, if you 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:07.719 didn't take the time to examine a house, um you 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:11.840 you are it's your own fault, basically, But this this circuit, 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.160 the or the appeals court judge said, well, this is 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:17.840 a material defect. Everyone knows it's haunted. So if you 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:19.920 tried to sell it, whoever you sell it too, is 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:21.880 gonna find out it's haunted. So it's a problem unless 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:24.880 somebody wants to buy a haunted house, so it's affected, 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:28.000 the real estate is affected. But then secondly, you couldn't 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:32.280 possibly find this out just by examining the house, right, um, 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:34.480 And so that was that it's an old Victorian and 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:38.960 of state New York. You right, right, But he was 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.680 saying like so by or but ware doesn't doesn't um 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:45.080 doesn't apply in this situation, and actually overturned it. So 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:47.840 when he did that, there's no state laws on the book. 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:50.960 There's no state. I think Zillo did a survey. There's 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:53.520 no state that says you have to disclose whether people 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:55.920 think a house is haunted or not. But because that 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:59.760 decision was made, there's now um precedence for it, and 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:01.560 we can point to it when they try to see 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:03.840 other people and say, look, see other people have said 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.720 this is correct, so fine in our favor. Yeah. I 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:12.320 think Minnesota has UH in its disclosure law, something that 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:16.720 says you, um, it free sellers up from having to 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:20.920 disclose non material facts, including if the home has any 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:24.960 perceived paranormal activity. So it is actually listed, but it's 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:28.200 listed in reverse right, like saying if your house is 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.040 on it, you don't have to say so. Um. And 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.920 I think it depends on what state you're in, as 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:37.840 I mean, I guess this is precedent in New York, 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:40.080 But would that be true for everywhere? Yeah, I think 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:42.120 that that would apply in the country and possibly even 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:45.960 in other Western countries to um, because it's such a rare, 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:49.440 unique ruling, I think you could cite it else right. 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:51.720 I don't know if it would hold up, um, depending 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:54.040 on where you were, but it is legal precedents in 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:58.680 the United States. Yes. Well, there's a woman named Cindy Hagley, Uh, 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:01.200 Cindy with an eye and she is a real estate 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:03.920 broker in California who I think she was forced to 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:05.960 change the Y two and I when she became a 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:09.440 real estate broker. Yes, so she get died at with 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:12.600 balloon hanging above the sign that's right, that says open house. 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:16.480 She's with the Hagley Group and also president of something 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:20.760 called Past Life Homes, which is a business uh where 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:25.520 she consults to sell houses that may be haunted. And 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:29.520 her deal is She's like, listen, um, you've got to 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:31.640 disclose it. In a couple of cases, if it will 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.080 affect the value of a home, kind of like what 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:36.599 the court case said, like, Hey, like this thing, you 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:38.760 can't sell it for as much in the future, so 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:41.800 you have to say something. Uh. That's one reason. And 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:45.120 the other reason, she says, is if it's um open 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:49.840 and notorious, like if everybody in the town knows about this, 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:52.320 Like if just the person that lived there said, hey, 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.320 there's a ghost, trust me, all this weird stuff happened. 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:57.520 It's been a reader's digest. Yeah, if it's been a 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:00.880 reader's digest and it's on a ghost tour, she thinks 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:03.719 she feels like she has to disclose it. Uh. And 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:07.320 the other sort of sticking point here is if someone 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:12.520 asked directly, hey, is this old spooky farmhouse haunted, then 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:14.640 you have to answer if you know something, yeah, which 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:18.280 I think is pretty cool. But that's really really um, 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:20.559 that's a useful thing for everybody to know when you're 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.840 buying a house. Just always ask. I think it's I mean, 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:25.760 what the worst they could do is be like you're 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:29.240 a cuckoo, but yeah, I know. Then just just send them, 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:31.320 send them our way and tell him to listen to 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:33.200 this episode and they'll be like, oh, Okay, now that 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.840 makes sense. But what about if it's not necessarily haunted. 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:41.520 What about if there was you know, if father killed 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:43.640 all of his family in their sleep one night twenty 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:47.560 years ago. Creepy chuck. So that would be something that's 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:52.360 called psychologically affected real estate UM or stigmatized real estate, 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:54.560 something that was like the side of a murder, a 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:59.880 meth lab um, the something that's openly and notoriously haunted, 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.800 as are called stigmatized properties. And when it comes to 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:06.600 an actual physical death, not a haunting or anything like that, 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.240 but somebody has died in the house, especially if they've 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:13.520 died violently, whether by suicide or by homicide. There are 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.400 actually some states that say you have to disclose this. 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:20.160 Almost all states don't say you have to disclose it again, 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:23.319 though you would be probably better off in the long 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:27.000 run just to cover your your bass legally afterward, to 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:30.400 disclose it after you're basically signing papers. You're like, by 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:33.640 the way, you know, my grandmother died in this in 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.679 your bedroom, um, and then just run out the door 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:40.120 with their check. But in Alaska, California, and South Dakota, 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.080 you actually are required to disclose it ahead of time, 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:48.360 right and so if someone said is blind man or haunted, 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:55.959 you would have to say, oh, yes, this is pretty 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:59.360 cool stuff it is. I love stuff like this. Um 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:03.640 so yeah, I guess The thing here is to be truthful, 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:08.160 is to be honest and open about everything from homicides 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:11.040 to hauntings too. If you've been making math, you know, 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:13.600 let the people know. I've been making math here, No 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:19.280 big deal. This house is probably just infected forever. Right. Well, 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:23.480 that's it. That's it about distressed real estate. And if 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:25.560 you want to know more about it, go home shopping 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:27.600 and see what you find and let us know what 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:30.400 you find too. And in the meantime, Short Stuff is apt. 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:35.920 Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio's 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:38.640 How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.600 visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:42.840 listen to your favorite shows.