How to Sell A Haunted House

In 1989, Helen Ackley decided to sell her old Victorian house in
Nyack, New York at 1 Laveta Place. It didn’t go as planned. There
were stories of ghosts, and the house became the center of a case
that’s referred to as “The Ghostbusters ruling.” The judicial
opinion read: “as a matter of law, the house is haunted.”  We
speak to Mark Kavanagh, Cynthia Kavanagh, Richard Ellis, University
of Chicago law professor Lior Strahilevitz, and Randall Bell, who
specializes in real estate damage economics. Randall Bell has
consulted on the property where 39 members of the Heaven's Gate
cult died by suicide in 1997. He also consulted on Nicole Brown
Simpson's condo, and one of the sites of the Manson family murders.
Part of his work is evaluating how the psychological stigma
attached to these properties affects their value. Say hello on
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