The Scandal of Stigma Homes – It’s time to set up a monitoring service.
In the pretty Sydney suburb of Sylvania, there’s a cute little home for sale for $520,000, it seems well priced.
If you turn up at the open-inspection, you’ll probably meet Rodney Spink of Sanders First National Real Estate. Like thousands of agents, Spink’s job is to maximise the positives and minimise the negatives of the homes he’s selling. For instance, the Formosa Street home is in a “great location”. That’s true, it’s right opposite the Bowling Club. It’s got two bathrooms, a spacious kitchen, three bedrooms and is close to the Southgate Shopping Centre. All positive stuff.
No mention, however, of the lounge room, where a woman was shot in the head by her estranged husband.
Although Rodney Spink (who advertises that he is a Justice of the Peace) has been made aware of the murder, he’s not telling the buyers.
But, after all, the murder happened back in 1968.
So who cares?
Well, for starters, the young man whose father witnessed the murder cares about it. He also cares about the people who will buy his former family home. He believes all potential buyers should be told about any past murders at any home. Further, as a TV actor, he doesn’t want his named linked with adverse publicity.
2 Comments
We just recently purchased a small house. We rented it to a nice couple who went away for a couple of days and left their son who was not living there to look after the house. On return to our nice little house, the nice couple found their son hanged himself on the back porch of our nice little house.
Do we have to now sell our nice little house for less than we owe on the loan? We are very sad for the nice couple BUT are we now not also victims in this incident. The sale of our nice little house will put us in hardship. If laws are to be passed that alert people to “stigmatised” houses then adjacent laws also need to be passed to compensate people like us!
There is no reason why a tragic event in a house should automatically result in a lower price. And such a matter would not have to be disclosed unless a potential purchaser were to specifically ask questions about its history and whether it had been the scene for any tragic events.