When you break out the scary movies for Halloween this year, one game you can play is to imagine yourself as a real estate agent who has to deal with the aftermath of the film's events. Anyone looking to sell the homes central to these tales of horror would have to do a lot more than slap on a new coat of paint and bake a fresh batch of cookies for the open house.

The listing for the hotel in "The Shining" might well be advertised as "Great investment opportunity, lovely hedge maze, occasional problems with creepy twins and blood-gushing elevators." The one for the home in "Poltergeist" would have to disclose a few issues with the lawn before being taken off the market due to the property imploding into another dimension.

Selling a haunted property might seem like a problem for the movies, but it can easily arise in real life as well. Homes that have a dark past or rumors of eerie occurrences may be more difficult to sell then other residences.

Homes with this unusual problem are known as "stigmatized properties." Marc Ben-Ezra and Asher Perlin, writing for the American Bar Association, say these properties are considered to have emotional or psychological defects rather than physical ones. In other words, the home itself is in good shape but a buyer might not be comfortable purchasing it due to its reputation.

Several states have adopted laws about stigmatized properties, though there are several different definitions for this designation. In Connecticut, stigmatized properties are identified as having a "nonmaterial fact concerning real property." These properties include those where an occupant has been infected with a reportable disease or one where a death or felony has occurred.

In one interesting case, a New York court declared that a property was haunted – legally speaking, at least. After buying a home in 1990, Jeffrey Stambovsky found that the previous owner had reported several previous visits by ghosts. A spooked Stambovsky sought to back out of the deal, but a lower court determined that the seller was not required to disclose the hauntings to him.

The appellate court disagreed, noting that the previous owner had already told the story of her house's spectral guests to the press, selling it to Reader's Digest for a substantial sum. Ilona Bray, writing for the legal site Nolo, says the court declared that the seller had already marketed the house as haunted through this action and could not fail to disclose it in subsequent transactions. "If the seller now claimed in the litigation that the house wasn't haunted, the seller would have been caught in a $3,000 lie to Reader's Digest," the court noted.

Disclosures

Stigmatized properties are not limited to homes where the doors shut themselves and ghosts are glimpsed at the end of hallways. It is much more likely that a buyer will be uncomfortable to learn that someone has been murdered, committed suicide, or died in an accident at the home. Buyers may also be deterred by properties where serious crimes took place or where the previous occupant had an infectious disease.

Buyers are more likely to be concerned with these issues when they are fresh in memory, but some reputations can be especially persistent. For example, the homes featured in "The Amityville Horror" and "In Cold Blood" are still known as the scenes of notorious multiple murders.

In Connecticut, the issues that stigmatize a property are defined as nonmaterial. As such, a seller or their agent does not have to disclose them when putting a property on the market. These parties are also protected from any action a buyer might pursue against them for not disclosing an issue related to the home's past or supposedly haunted nature.

However, the law also recognizes that such issues may be important to the buyer. It provides that the buyer can make a written request that the seller disclose any information about whether the home was the site of a murder, suicide, or felony. The seller can refuse to provide this information, but must inform the buyer in writing.

Any sellers making this disclosure should also be careful that they don't run afoul of privacy laws. Raine Zygmunt, writing for the National Association of Realtors' publication RealtorMag, says buyers may ask if a previous owner was infected with any reportable diseases such as HIV, but that these residents are also protected under the federal fair housing law. Consult with your real estate agent and attorney before making any disclosures.

Making a sale

If you believe your home is haunted or has an unsavory past, disclosing this information might make it more difficult to sell the home. Kathy Holstein, a Century21 real estate agent, says stigmatized properties often stay on the market for longer and sell for significantly less money than other homes.

In some cases, however, you may be able to turn this reputation to your advantage. The National Association of Realtors says being open about a home's ghostly guests can even attract people who are interested in finding a haunted house.

Sometimes a home is unfairly characterized as haunted, due to its foreboding Victorian design or other reasons. Geoff Williams, writing for HGTV, says you can quash these rumors by addressing them directly with buyers.

If you are concerned that your house is legitimately haunted, you may want to seek out the services of a paranormal team or other such "ghostbusters." They'll bring plenty of strategies for evicting ghosts from the property or helping them move on, and may help give both the buyer and seller peace of mind.

You may have to consider reducing the price on the home. Holstein says a 2000 study of stigmatized properties in Ohio found that they sold for prices about 3 percent lower than other homes. However, she also notes that some stigmatized properties have sold for less than half of their asking price.

Williams says sellers who currently reside in a haunted house or a property with a similarly tainted reputation might want to lower their asking price by as much as 25 percent. He says this price reduction is more likely to appeal to an investor than someone who will want to live in the property.