Wondering if there’s a skeleton in your closet? There’s a Web site for that.
Before you buy a home, a site called Died in House will let you know whether a previous occupant bought the farm there, and if they were victims of foul play.
For $11.99, the site, at diedinhouse.com, will check any US address against property records, police reports and other databases, including the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File.
Site co-founder Roy Condrey said it’s not just to satisfy morbid curiosity. Some customers are convinced their homes are haunted and want to find out why.
Others, Condrey said, “don’t want the stigma” of living in a place where something awful happened. Homes that were the scenes of crimes depreciate in value and take longer to sell.
As Condrey put it, “I don’t want to live in the house where Andrea Yates drowned her five children.”
He believes he’s providing need-to-know info for buyers. But most states, including New York, disagree.
New York law, in fact, states a death “is not a material defect or fact relating to property offered for sale or lease.”