By LAURA LOTHIAN

Years ago, I listed a home in University City where the elderly owner had peacefully passed away in her home.

The 1960s house was cute but dated with a kidney-shaped pool very popular in Mid-Century Southern California homes. As always, as soon as the listing went live, my phone started ringing with the typical, “Any offers yet?” queries, but mixed in were several, “Did anyone die on the property?” questions. This is an odd question to get up front.

Turns out the area had a high Asian demographic and I learned from this experience many Asians (and others) will shun a home if there has been a death on the property. I recall asking one of the agents who asked this question (she was from China) why I was being asked this question and she said for some it was cultural and for others superstition, bad luck.

I shared this story with an extremely spiritual client whose home I sold in a historical neighborhood in National City. She told me when she was young, she had purchased a home in another state. Shortly after moving in, she started feeling sad and anxious, then experienced depression so deep, she could barely get out of bed.

She discovered the previous owner had committed suicide in the master bedroom where she was then sleeping. She never spent another night in that room, sold the house, and regained her equilibrium.

Despite the sophistication of modern-day Californians/Americans, death and our reactions to it are deeply personal and visceral. In California, sellers must tell buyers if a death in the home has occurred anytime in the past three years. California law states if a seller is asked about deaths on the property, the owner cannot lie. The California Association of Realtors recommends Realtors come clean if questioned no matter how long ago the death occurred, the exception being AIDS-related deaths.

The two most illuminating Seller Disclosures from the California Association of Realtors (CAR) are the Seller Property Questionnaire (SPQ) and the Transfer Disclosure Statement (TDS).Tellingly, the first question on the Seller Property Questionnaire is “ARE YOU (SELLER) AWARE OF… A. Within the last 3 years, the death of an occupant of the Property upon the Property Yes? No? (Note to seller: The manner of a death may be a material fact to the buyer, and should be disclosed, except for death by HIV/AIDS.)To head off any escrow disruptions, many listing agents will tell buyer agents upfront about a death on the property within three years or publish under “Confidential Remarks” on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), if they know.

Whichever way buyers learn of a death on the property, their first question is how? “Naturally” or “Natural causes,” is the hoped-for answer. Per my experience and research, homes where people have died of natural causes have no loss in value or desirability. Many buyers I encounter express feeling comforted knowing someone chose to die in their home surrounded by their family and loved ones.

Unnatural deaths –suicide and murder –can stigmatize a house and drive away potential buyers or attract bargain hunters. The most famous unnatural death house in San Diego’s history is the Heaven’s Gate mansion.

In March of 1997, 39 members of a cult committed mass suicide convinced they would be transported to a UFO they believed was trailing the Hale-Bopp comet. The circumstance of the deaths was so disturbing, the nine-bedroom, seven-bath home with swimming pool and tennis court on over three acres in ultra-affluent Rancho Santa Fe sold two years later to a developer for $668,000. Similar-sized Rancho Santa Fe homes sold for $1.3M – $3.4M that year. Ultimately, the neighbors purchased the home, razed it, and renamed the street.

Of the approximately 600 homes I have sold the last 21 years, only one had an unnatural death and it did not affect the value or dissuade the buyer, a physician, from purchasing.

— Reach eXp Realtor and La Mesa City Councilwoman Laura Lothian at: [email protected].