People love a good murder mystery unless you are a real estate agent and the murder happened in the house you are trying to sell.

Many years ago, I listed a home for a single guy who said he was taking a long road trip. He planned to be gone for years and needed to sell his house. We priced it competitively and placed the house on the market. A week later, I was having coffee while watching the morning news when they reported a story about a stabbing in West Asheville. The suspect was supposed to report to prison and had a “going away” party at his house the night before. Two people got into an argument, and someone got stabbed. Everyone pointed to the homeowner as the person doing the stabbing. I sat watching this news article and started murmuring into my coffee, “Please don’t show the real estate sign. Please don’t show the real estate sign”.

My husband, a (now retired) master craftsman, relayed a story to me one day about a Russian countertop installer who broke a plumbing drain pipe during installation. The installer kept insisting (in broken English), “I glue! I glue”. My husband firmly said no, you won’t glue, I will fix it, and the seller can deduct the fee from your invoice. A few days later, we heard on the news that a guy of Russian descent had come home from work and found his wife in bed with another guy. The Russian killed his wife and sent the lover packing. We always wondered if the broken drain pipe wasn’t the start of a really bad day for the Russian.

But this story gets better. A few years later, I was at a listing appointment, consulting with an older woman who was selling her home. The home had an attached guest cottage that she had often rented out. To make small talk, I asked her who her favorite tenant was. She said, “The young Russian guy that killed his wife. They were such a sweet, quiet couple”. No kidding? What happened? Apparently, the Russian guy comes home, finds his wife in bed with another man, and tells the man to go sit in the living room while he goes back into the bedroom and kills his wife. He then tells the guy to get in his truck, and he DRIVES HIM HOME, then calls the cops and tells them what he did. We can only speculate that this all started with a broken drain pipe.

If you are wondering how I sold a house where a murder had taken place, I will say, it was easy. We didn’t broadcast the murder, but when someone said they were interested in making an offer, I sent an email (so it was in writing) explaining what happened and when. I did this before the offer was written so the potential buyer had all the facts. Since it was in the guest house, they didn’t care and eventually bought the house. The state of North Carolina says it’s not something that has to be disclosed unless it’s famous enough to sell t-shirts. Morally, I think disclosure is the right thing to do but it can be finessed a bit.