If you could read the energy in a home, would it make it harder to buy your first house? In my second book, Sightseeing in the Undiscovered Country, a family bought a charming old home but got more than they bargained for in the attic. Another family developed a warm relationship with the former departed owner. But does anyone take house ghosts seriously?

Apparently so. Haunted properties fall into a category called “stigmatized properties,” according to a recent article on www.RealtorMag.org. While such homes may not be defective in any physical manner, spirit squatters may reduce their value. Situations covered under the term “stigmatized” included homes that were the site of a murder, suicide, alleged haunting, or other parapsychological phenomena. While half of U.S. states have laws related to stigmatized properties, most don’t require sellers to disclose if they have a ghost. If a state doesn’t have a statute that requires notifying potential buyers of hauntings, sellers may not be required to disclose that spirits roam the premises. But the real estate site suggests that even if your state doesn’t require such sharing of information, doing so makes sense. They suggest telling your real estate agent if you or others have noticed

• objects lifting up or moving by themselves;
• voices or sounds when no one else is around; and/or
• strange light or shadow phenomena that happen repeatedly

What many of the people whose stories fill my book found was that getting along with any roommate is important, even if he or she is co-existing in the spiritual realm.