GHOST LEAVES COINS AROUND HOUSE

When Julia Park Tracey, 60, and her husband, Patrick Tracey, 63, bought a five-bedroom home in Grass Valley, Calif., in 2020 for $280,000 from Pennie Hughes, who was about 70 years old, she didn't disclose on any paperwork that the house was haunted. But Julia says she told them it was haunted informally and jokingly, saying things like, Of course it's haunted; it's an old house.

Then, Hughes died on the day she was moving out of the home.

As soon as Julia, a novelist, and Patrick, a human resources consultant, moved in, she says coins started showing up. We found pennies everywhere in the most random places, she says. Shiny pennies turned up for several years where she had already scoured. It was like she came back every night and seeded the ground with pennies, she says. It was weird. She didn't want to leave…and by God, she didn't.

Hughes's daughter DeArlene Wiggins, 55, a semiretired landlord, confirms that Hughes was reluctant to move out and had a heart attack while readying the moving truck to leave.

She loved that house; it was her heart home, says Wiggins. She says her mother's nickname was Lucky Pennie and thinks the dispersing of pennies for the Traceys is something Hughes would do. She was pretty playful and fun and full of mischief. I think she could be doing something like that. Wiggins says that in the past, she and her family did think the house was haunted. We'd hear stuff in the attic, and Mom said she would see things float by, Wiggins says.

The rules surrounding disclosure in the sale of a supposedly haunted house have a few surprises. Deanne Rymarowicz, associate counsel for the National Association of Realtors, says only four states address the idea of paranormal activity in the context of a home sale.

In Massachusetts, New Jersey and Minnesota, a supposed haunting is explicitly listed in disclosure rules as a non-material fact that does not need to be disclosed to potential buyers. In all states, neither seller nor agent can misrepresent the home's history if they are asked. Would Rymarowicz herself live in a haunted house? If there's blood running down the walls, probably not, she says. But if it's like some weird, flickering lights, I don't know. Having a little guardian ghost might not be bad.

 

To read the complete article (subscription required), see:
Selling a Haunted Home Isn't as Scary as You Think (https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/luxury-homes/selling-a-haunted-home-is-between-you-and-the-ghosts-495d68c6)

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