Scary home, smart investment?

Would you buy a house where a murder or mass suicide happened for the right price? If you’re not a “hell no,” but a “how cheap?” keep reading.

Residential crime scenes tend to sell for a 10%–25% discount, says Randall Bell, who has appraised properties linked to an array of grisly cases, including Jeffrey Dahmer, JonBenét Ramsey, Charles Manson, and Heaven’s Gate. Although these homes can be deals for investors with strong stomachs, they also come with serious baggage. “You can’t just buy them for a discount and flip them tomorrow,” Bell says. “Sometimes it can take years before these homes reset to market value.”

One eventual success story? Nicole Brown Simpson’s Brentwood, CA, condo sat empty for years after her murder before finally selling in 1996 for $525,000—about $100,000 less than its value before the tragedy. To purge the home’s past, the new owners changed the address and overhauled the facade. The makeover was so effective, “I almost couldn’t find it when I visited later,” Bell admits. It last sold in 2006 for $1.72 million.

Other infamous murder homes have a tougher time shaking their bad juju, like the San Diego mansion where 39 Nike-clad Heaven’s Gate cult members committed suicide in 1997. Neighbors renamed the street, but “They did it right at the height of all the media, which just gave them another story and made everybody realize what a bad situation it was,” Bell points out. “It was also a large house in a family community, so it only made sense for a family, which was a tough sell. I’ve seen it happen with other cases where kids from the neighborhood won’t come in the house.” The property sold two years later for $668,000, about half its $1.6 million pre-tragedy price tag, and was eventually razed to the ground.

Still, forensic appraiser Orell Anderson thinks that certain stigmatized homes can pay off as investments, particularly as rentals, pointing out, “renters come and go, and forget what happened.”

But what about haunted homes? Houses with ghosts, on the other hand, can sell for a premium. The 1971 haunted farmhouse in Burrillville, RI, that inspired The Conjuring franchise is valued about $200,000 higher than comparable homes in the area, according to Tracy Beach, founder of FrightFind.com.

Haunted houses can be big moneymakers as tourist attractions, but they also tend to stir up trouble with the neighbors. That’s precisely what happened with The Conjuring house: It lost its entertainment license in 2024 after complaints, went into foreclosure, and was set to hit the auction block on Halloween. But before the gavel fell, a mystery buyer swooped in and bought it for an undisclosed amount.

Bottom line: Although scary homes can pay off, they’re risky bets. And since not every case makes the papers—and disclosures vary by state—be sure to vet suspicious homes on DiedInHouse.com to decide whether to steer clear…or ask for a price cut.