Researching a House? Check Its History Before You Spend Hundreds on Inspections and Appraisals

Buying a home comes with a long list of expenses.

There is the inspection, the appraisal, title work, insurance, surveys, specialized testing and everything else that can pile up before closing. Most buyers accept those costs as part of the process.

But there is one thing many people do not research until much later, if at all: the history of the house itself.

That can be a mistake.

A home inspection can tell you whether the roof is failing, the electrical system needs work or there is moisture in the crawlspace. An appraisal can help determine what the property is worth.

Neither one is designed to tell you everything that may have happened at that address before you came along.

And sometimes, that history can matter just as much as the condition of the house.

The house looked fine. Its history was another story.

One of the best-known examples comes from Nyack, New York.

In the late 1980s, Jeffrey Stambovsky agreed to buy a Victorian home at 1 LaVeta Place. What he apparently did not know at the time was that the home's owner, Helen Ackley, had publicly described the property as haunted.

The house had been featured in local newspaper stories, Reader's Digest and even a local haunted-house tour.

Stambovsky, who was not from the area, later learned about the home's reputation and tried to back out of the deal.

The dispute eventually became the well-known 1991 case Stambovsky v. Ackley. A New York appellate court allowed his effort to rescind the contract to proceed.

Whether someone believes the house was actually haunted is not really the point.

The important part is that there was information tied to the property that mattered to the buyer, and it was not something a standard inspection would have uncovered.

That case has become one of the clearest examples of why researching a property's history can be worthwhile before getting too far into a purchase.

Sometimes the history is more than a reputation

There are also cases where a property's past can involve very real physical concerns.

In 2012, Jonathan and Beth Hankins bought a foreclosed home in Klamath Falls, Oregon.

The family began renovating the property and later reported becoming sick. They eventually learned that the house had previously been associated with methamphetamine production.

The family left the home, and Freddie Mac later reached a settlement with them.

Oregon health officials have warned that chemicals used in methamphetamine manufacturing can contaminate surfaces and that residue can remain if a property is not properly decontaminated.

Another Oregon family, Travis and Denay Tubbs, made headlines years later after buying a property in Jefferson. They later alleged that they discovered the home had previously been associated with methamphetamine activity and that contamination remained at the property.

These are unusual cases, but they show why a property's past should not be treated as completely separate from the buying process.

Sometimes the history is simply interesting.

Sometimes it is uncomfortable.

And occasionally, it may lead to questions a buyer wants answered before spending more money on the property.

Sellers are not always required to tell you everything

Many buyers assume that if something significant happened at a house, the seller must disclose it.

That is not always the case.

Disclosure laws vary from state to state, and they do not require sellers to provide a complete historical record of a property.

California is a good example.

Under California law, a seller or agent generally is not required to disclose that someone died at a property if the death occurred more than three years before the buyer makes an offer.

That does not mean the event did not happen.

It simply means the seller may not be required to volunteer that information.

Other states have different rules.

Some offer even broader protections involving so-called stigmatized properties.

This is why a seller's disclosure and independent property-history research should not be confused with one another.

A disclosure tells you what the seller is legally required to disclose.

Research can help you learn what else may be connected to the property.

An inspection has a different job

Home inspections are important. Buyers should absolutely have properties professionally inspected when appropriate.

But an inspector's job is to evaluate the physical condition of the home.

They are looking at things such as:

the roof

plumbing

electrical systems

heating and cooling

structural components

water intrusion

major defects

They are not usually searching decades of local newspaper archives or researching previous occupants and historical events associated with the street address.

That is simply not what a home inspection is designed to do.

The same applies to an appraisal.

An appraisal helps determine the value of a property. It is not meant to provide a complete history of everything that may have happened there.

That distinction matters because buyers can easily spend hundreds of dollars on an inspection and hundreds more on an appraisal before discovering something about the home's past that makes them reconsider the purchase.

Not every buyer cares about the same things

This is also important.

Property history is personal.

One buyer may have absolutely no concern about a previous death in a home.

Another may not want to live there.

One buyer may consider a widely reported crime at the property ancient history.

Another may immediately walk away.

Neither reaction is necessarily right or wrong.

The point is that the buyer should have the opportunity to make that decision before investing more money into the transaction.

Information that does not matter to one person can be extremely important to another.

Research first. Spend more later.

There is a practical reason to research a property early.

Money.

A homebuyer can easily spend hundreds of dollars on an inspection. Appraisals often cost hundreds more. Specialized inspections, surveys and environmental testing can add even more.

Property-history research can often be done much earlier in the process.

If nothing concerning appears, move forward with the inspection and appraisal.

If something does surface, you can decide whether it matters before spending more money.

It is not a replacement for professional due diligence.

It is simply another step, and in many cases it makes sense for that step to come first.

What should you look for?

Start with the exact address.

Search local newspaper archives and public records.

Look for previous property uses, notable events, fires, criminal activity, environmental concerns and other incidents tied to the location.

Search the names of previous owners when appropriate.

Review historical sale information.

Look at the surrounding area as well as the house itself.

And if there is something that matters personally to you, ask about it directly.

No research method is perfect.

Older records may not be online. Newspaper archives can be incomplete. Addresses change. Some incidents were never publicly reported.

That is why no property-history search should be treated as a guarantee that every event connected to a house will be found.

But there is still a big difference between researching a property and never looking at its history at all.

Before you spend hundreds, learn what you can about the house

Most buyers spend a great deal of time looking at countertops, flooring, school districts, mortgage rates and comparable sales.

Those things matter.

But a house has another side that is easy to overlook.

Its past.

An inspection can help you understand the condition of the house.

An appraisal can help you understand its value.

Property-history research can help answer a different question:

What happened here before I arrived?

For most homes, the answer may not change anything.

But every once in a while, it changes everything.

Before you spend hundreds of dollars on inspections and appraisals, it is worth taking the time to learn the history of the property first.