By Kimberly Haas
For people who are interested in finding out if their home or future home is haunted, there is a website for that.
Roy Condrey, who has experience as a project manager at a software company, lives in South Carolina and is the founder and president of DiedInHouse.com.
On his social media pages, Condrey and his team post information about some of the more notable houses throughout the nation, including houses where there has been paranormal activity and/or violent deaths.
“The Victorian” in Gardner, Mass., was featured on the Died In House Facebook page on Oct. 27.
“The S.K. Pierce Mansion, a.k.a ‘The Victorian’ in Gardner, Mass. where a man was reported to have burned to death in an upstairs bedroom. Many others have been reported dying in the mansion since it was built in the 1800s. The new owners state that they did not believe in ghosts when they bought the property, but since then they refuse to live in the mansion due to the many unexplainable experiences they have had there,” Condrey and his team wrote.
That house is not currently for sale or rent, but there have been times when houses hit the market and are featured online.
On Aug. 17, 2020, the house in Farmington, N.H., where two women were brutally stabbed to death, was on Condrey’s Facebook page. It was listed for sale, he said at the time.
Christine Sullivan, 48, and Jenna Pellegrini, 32, died on Jan. 27, 2017. Sullivan was living at the home with convicted drug dealer Dean Smoronk, who was visiting another girlfriend in Cape Coral, Fla. at the time of Sullivan and Pellegrini’s death.
Prosecutors from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office claim Timothy Verrill, 38, of Dover, N.H., was the killer.
Verrill has been behind bars for more than four years because his first jury trial in 2019 ended in a mistrial when it was revealed that exculpatory evidence was not provided to his defense team.
Smoronk is still the listed owner of the house on whitepages.com.
Condrey said he founded DiedinHouse.com in November 2012 after his tenant in Irmo, S.C., complained of ghosts and he started to research his rental properties.
“I went online thinking there I would find something, but I didn’t,” Condrey said. “Most states are not required to disclose a murder, a violent death, or a suicide.”
According to Condrey’s website in New Hampshire, any death in the home is not considered to be a material fact and is not required to be disclosed. However, if a buyer asks and the seller knows, then they should answer truthfully.
Failure to disclose cannot result in legal action.
Justin Davidson is general counsel and director of Government Affairs at the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.
“In Massachusetts, there is no requirement that real estate agents or sellers disclose that a property was the site of a felony, suicide, or homicide or that the property has been the site of an alleged parapsychological or supernatural phenomenon,” Davidson said.
He says if a buyer asks about death or paranormal activity on the property, the real estate agent must answer truthfully in Massachusetts.
Only a few states have laws in place that mandate disclosure without a buyer asking.
In California, any death on the property – peaceful or otherwise – needs to be disclosed if that death happened within the last three years, according to realtor.com.
In South Dakota and Alaska, murders and suicides need to be disclosed if they happened within a year of the time of closing, Condrey said.
Haunted houses may spook some homebuyers, but a recent survey conducted by Rocket Homes shows one-quarter of adults claim they have lived in a haunted house.
One in three Americans says they would be willing to buy a house that is haunted and only 21 percent would try to sell a house they purchased if they discovered it was haunted, according to the survey.