WASHINGTON — How much information do real estate agents need to reveal to interested buyers about a home? Must they disclose any tales of murder or reports of hauntings? The quick answer is no.
“Things like that are not material to the property so there is no obligation to disclose that,” said Eldad Moraru of Long and Foster.
This topic is receiving some attention as a house in Northwest D.C. with a grisly past has been placed on the market.
It was on May 14 that firefighters found smoke billowing from the multimillion-dollar house on the 3200 block of Woodland Drive, in Northwest. Once the smoke cleared, three members of one family and their housekeeper were found dead. They had all been tied up, tortured and then murdered.
With police no longer combing through it for clues, the house has been placed on the market. It has been listed as a site for possible new construction and is priced at $3.2 million. The price is nearly half the asking price for a similar house down the street.
Moraru said the job of a listing agent is to get the best price for the seller, but they also have to abide by a code of ethics.
Agents will most likely avoid volunteering troubling stories that go along with a stigmatized property, but Moraru said that if an individual asks about a house’s past, the agent should answer honestly.
Following the law, agents are only required to tell prospective buyers about material facts. An example of that would be a structural issue with the house.
Moraru said a home with a checkered past may end up on the market for a longer period of time.
“A stigmatized property, depending what the stigma is, definitely works against the seller,” Moraru said.
Ultimately, to find a home’s dark secrets, buyers must do their own research. In some cases, a simple Internet search of the address will reveal a home’s history.
Moraru said many resources online offer information about homes and neighborhoods. D.C. also provides a website where anyone can find out the crime statistics for a specific neighborhood.
