It’s the Halloween season and time for haunted houses, ghosts, and goblins. Like most people, I enjoy Halloween but definitely wouldn’t want to celebrate the holiday every day. Unfortunately, unsuspecting buyers commonly purchase properties with a spooky past. Did you just buy “murder kroger”? Did you know that a death can decrease a properties value by 25% or more? How do you protect yourself and make sure you don’t purchase “murder Kroger”?
For most people, a home is the largest asset they will ever own which is why I find it amazing how many times people buy properties and are totally surprised at what they find out after closing. The clear majority of issues can be spotted well before the house is ever sold. In the Halloween spirit, I wanted to highlight two spooky (and possibly financially altering) issues that are more common than you think.
First, a violent death can decrease the value of a property by 25% and take almost 50% longer to sell. This can occur on both residential and commercial properties. Have you ever heard of murder Kroger? This is a true place in Atlanta. Along with death the other “scary” occurrence on a house is meth contamination. Did you know in Denver that a house group found that 7% of their houses were contaminated with meth and 11% of their commercial properties?
How do you protect yourself from these issues? I put together an article for the Colorado Biz Magazine that outlines simple free tips every property purchaser should take before consummating a purchase. Have a Happy Halloween and be safe on your trick or treating and your property purchases at this “spooky” time.
Written by Glen Weinberg, COO/ VP Fairview Commercial Lending. Glen has been published as an expert in hard money lending, real estate valuation, financing, and various other real estate topics in the Colorado Real Estate Journal, the CO Biz Magazine, The Denver Post, The Scotsman mortgage broker guide, Mortgage Professional America and various other national publications.
Fairview is a hard money lender specializing in private money loans / non-bank real estate loans in Georgia, Colorado, Illinois, and Florida. They are recognized in the industry as the leader in hard money lending with no upfront fees or any other games. Learn more about Hard Money Lending through our free Hard Money Guide. To get started on a loan all they need is their simple one page application (no upfront fees or other games).