Haunted house and repair insights
With Halloween just days away, a recent survey suggests that some homeowners and potential homebuyers fear improvement projects more than ghosts.
Real Estate Witch, a division of Clever Real Estate, survey 1,500 people last month with 93% of them saying home repair issues are scarier than living in a home that's haunted.
Key repair issues they most fear include:
- Mold (68%)
- Foundation issues (64%)
- Termites (61%)
- Asbestos (61%)
- Leaky roof (57%)
- Water damage (57%)
Other insights from the survey include 70% saying they believe in the supernatural while 40% of respondents said they would not buy a haunted house under any circumstances.
About 63% of people think the government should require home sellers to disclose if their house is haunted or had experienced paranormal activity. Just 9 states currently have requirements on disclosing hauntings in a home.
If they found out the house was haunted, 27% of respondents said they would move immediately. Another 24% of those surveyed said that they currently live in a haunted house.
Potential buyers said they would purchase a haunted house if it was for a much lower price (73%), they were convinced the ghosts were friendly (58%), or the house was in a safer neighborhood (49%).
Millennials’ inclination toward supernatural beliefs might explain why millennials are 2.1-times more likely than baby boomers to report having lived in a haunted house and at least 32% more likely to have experienced a spooky event in their possibly haunted home.
When asked how they knew their home was haunted, millennials were:
- 150% more likely than boomers to experience strange shadows.
- 91% more likely to see levitating objects.
- 57% more likely to be spooked by items moving on their own.
- 50% more likely to have an “eerie” feeling in certain rooms of the house.
- 32% more likely to feel hot or cold spots throughout the home.
- 13% more likely to feel like they’ve been touched when no one was around.
The full “Everything You Need to Know About Haunted Real Estate & Halloween in the Age of COVID-19” report can be read here.