How The Prior History Of A House Can Affect You

Checking out the prior history of a house, from what happened to previous owners to whether the house has been used in any films, is just as important as checking out its current condition. The previous events in and around the house can come back to affect your life both physically and emotionally in both beneficial and adverse ways. You need to know if anything happened because you could get a surprise once you move in if you aren't up on all of the happenings in the house.

Resale Value

One issue you could face is a low resale value. For example, if the house was the scene of a well-known crime many years ago, that stigma could stick to the house, making people less likely to buy it if you were to try to sell it later on. Many states have disclosure laws that would force you to note what happened at the house, so there really wouldn't be a way to hide it. However, the type of crime and the age of the crime may be a mitigating factor. Something that happened several decades ago might not leave the same impression as something that recently happened.

Psychological Issues

Even if you weren't concerned about resale value, the type of event could have emotional and psychological repercussions for you. Say the previous owners had a lot of family tragedies. Knowing that sort of energy had been playing out in the house can make you dwell more on the negative in your life.

Of course, not all history is negative -- you might find that everyone who previously lived in the house flourished and moved on to even better circumstances. Wouldn't that be a lovely house to live in!

Physical Issues

Sometimes the previous history involved a physical problem, such as drug dealing. It's become more common to find that a residence once housed a meth lab that was never discovered by law enforcement -- instead, potential buyers often find out by getting very ill after moving in. Meth production can leave walls and floors soaked with fume-emitting chemicals. And of course, if no one ever discovered the lab, then no one can disclose it. You can avoid this, though, by having the house tested for meth. There are inspection companies that will do this for you.

Celebrity Hounds and Fans

Occasionally the previous history is rather nice, such as the exterior of the house being used as the location shot for a house in a movie. That can be kind of a cool history to have, but beware celebrity hounds and fans. If the movie was a favorite, you could have to put up with fans stopping by the house, and you'd have to decide if it were something you could deal with.

Talk to your agent about the best ways to find the hidden history of a house. In addition to a meth test (really, do this on any house that's been previously owned, even very nice houses in good neighborhoods), talk to neighbors and look for news stories online about the address. Your real estate agent wants to have happy customers, and he or she will try to help you as much as possible.