George Kamel - 9 Creepy Things That Can Tank Your Home Value

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

🎥 Watch my video Home Upgrades That Are (and Aren’t) Worth the Money. Could these nine creepy things be tanking your home’s value? In this episode, I’ll break down the list so you can tell if these things are actually creepy and if your home value is actually in trouble.     Next Steps: • 📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a free personalized plan. • 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app!   Connect With Our Sponsors: • Get up to 40% off Cozy Earth with code GEORGE. • Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. • Go to FAIRWINDS Credit Union for an exclusive account bundle!   Explore More From Ramsey Network: 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The call was coming from inside the house. Dave! Stop! I'm filming a video! Gosh, you always do this. Did you bring my TOTino's pizza rolls at least? We love a good scary story, but if your house is scary, that's a whole other story. And it might be costing you more than just a good night's sleep. A real website called Money Talks News, one word, posted an article called Nine Creepy Things that can tank your home value.

And today I'm going to break this list down to tell you if these things are actually creepy and if they can actually tank your home value. And maybe I'll stop using the word actually. We'll see. All right. Nine creepy things that can tank your home value in the number one spot. Death in the house. All right.

I hope to God this is AI. Because what photographer is like, hey, grandma on her way out? Hold on. I got to get my shutter stock photos to upload, try to make a little bit of money. Goodness. Is she, grandma looks good, though. I think she's just sleeping. I think Pop Pop is just.

He's hand on her to keep her warm. I don't know what's going on here, but a death doesn't have to be gory to cause people to think twice about moving into a house. Even natural deaths are enough to creep out some buyers. And a business insider, polled real estate agents, found that a death in the home can make the house hard to sell. No, duh. Not ideal. It's not a selling point. I wouldn't include that in the listing as a feature.

It goes on to ask, does your state require sellers to disclose a death in the home? Not all do. Check your state's requirements for disclosures during a property. sale in your state at this legal website. All right, good to know. So yeah, if it did happen, I'm sorry, I hope. I guess a best case scenario is that it's a natural death of a loved one who was just aging. But otherwise, that's dark stuff, guys. Off to a great start here. Number two, going strong with ghosts and ghouls. Even if states don't require sellers to disclose reports of ghostly apparitions that doesn't mean people won't find out about them.

How are they going to find out about the ghost? Unless they're filming an episode of ghost hunters there, that would be a telltale sign that there could be an apparition. When they do, it could derail a sale, as was the case in a famous 1991 court decision that led a seller back out of a purchase because alleged huntings were not disclosed. That is creepy.

And again, you gotta hope this is AI and not an actual ghost photographer because, oh, he's holding a baby doll. That's not a real baby. The ghost is holding a baby doll, which somehow makes them less intimidating? I don't know. It's like, all right, dude.

You're into baby dolls. Number three, a cemetery nearby. That is creepy. Not a fan of those. Yes, these neighbors are quiet, but a cemetery nearby can be off-putting to some people. In fact, National Association of Realtors, aka NAR,

NAR. Found that a nearby cemetery drags property prices down about 12%. Honestly, I thought it would be more. I'm going to go 99%. Then again, a study of sales by real estate firm considered the question that came up with a more complex finding. Homes near cemeteries sell for more money, but it may take longer to find the right buyer.

Why would they sell for more money than a place that doesn't have a cemetery? Is it just like, hey, at least I won't have to go far? When this all ends, in whatever way it ends, At least they can just drag me to the nearby cemetery. Personally, for me and my family, I would not buy a house if it was like within... If I could throw a rock into the cemetery, that's simply too close for me.

And I'm a pretty good thrower. So we're talking half a mile, minimum. As the crow flies. Number four on their list of creepy things that can tank your home value, a funeral home in the neighborhood. Okay, now we're stretching it, guys. Death in general simply doesn't seem to be good for home. sales, analyzing values of houses near funeral homes. The National Association of Realtors

found prices were 6.5% lower than for properties elsewhere in a county. That's not bad. So here's the deal. You want a 6% discount? Just search within the vicinity of funeral homes. Bada bada b'bub. Even better if there's a cemetery in a funeral home, you just got a 20% discount, my friend. It goes on to say some of that may have to do with the traffic they generate, but there could be other factors at play as well. People may fear that smoke from the Crematorium is toxic. Others may worry about the negative spiritual energy. Still, others may simply find the prospect of living next to a building with dead bodies inside to be the stuff of nightmares. I will say, not a huge fan of funeral homes. The ceilings are low. I don't know, I think if they raise the ceilings, it would be more inviting. But it just feels like the whole thing's just, it's coming down on you. They're always low.

That's so true. I'm a short guy, and I still feel like the ceilings are low. Can we go for a nine-footer minimum? Give me some breathing room. Gawley. Number five on their list. Criminal neighbors. Really? That's going to detract from your home value if you have a neighbor that's a criminal?

Give me a break. Not only the dead can have a serious impact on housing prices. A neighbor's criminal record can be bad too. Even without a real estate disclosure, potential buyers won't have much trouble learning about unsavory characters on the block. Thanks to online registries of sex offenders and other criminals, the information's easy to to find and the National Bureau of Economic Research estimates the presence of a sex offender's residence drops the prices of homes within a tenth of a mile by 4%. You're telling me that sex offender 4%, funeral home 6.5%?

That is wild behavior. But point taken, I would not want to live in the presence of a known sex offender, especially having kids in the house, so that's fair game. Number six on their list, mold in the wall. Not all mold is deadly, but there has been enough bad press about toxic mold that buyers would understandably balk at purchasing a home that has any variation of the stuff. In some states, real estate agents or brokers have a duty to disclose problems they know about. Likewise, an appraiser should notify you of any obvious sign of a mold problem if it could affect the value of the property. I will say this.

We have taken many Ramsey Show calls where people are calling in. They bought the house. The inspection went through. There was no big issues. they later find out about a mold problem because the inspection can only find out so much. I mean, they're not jackhammering the drywall to see what's going on behind there.

So this is a really tough one to spot, and I would be very careful to investigate any mold problems before you move in because it can be one of the most expensive things to repair and remediate. And that's one of the only times I will use the word remediation

is what I'm talking about mold. Moving on to creepy things that can tank your home value, high voltage power lines overhead. Let's see what they say about this. We all like our electricity, but not everyone wants high voltage wires outside their home. Who wants high?

I mean, nobody's like, man, I really would, I wish there was some higher voltage wires up there. A study of properties in South Carolina found the price of vacant land, typically about 20% of a property's value, can be depressed by 45% compared with similar land farther from power lines. That drop would create a roughly 9% decrease

in a home's overall value. Other research, though, disputes the effect. Okay, I'm trying to think my first townhome I ever owned had some power lines nearby, and mostly they're just unsightly. That's all I got us. I don't know what the dangers are, the EMF, sure, but it's just ugly to look at, a bunch of power lines everywhere. So I can understand this one, 9% decrease of it was, let's say, $300,000.

You're looking closer to $270,000. So, hey, again, looking for a discount, find the one that's near a funeral home, a cemetery with giant power lines, and my friends, this is like 50% off at this point. And listen, even if you're not comfortable buying a house under power lines, there's a good chance you will be comfortable in some pants from Cozy Earth, a sponsor of today's video, especially the Cozy Earth Everywhere pant, and they are called that for a reason. These puppies are great, for work, home, dinner, brunch, weddings, funerals, and even touring affordable houses under Power Lines.

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ABC Always Be Cozy. And since this whole episode is about creepy things, you know what's the most creepy? data brokers selling my information to spammers and scammers online. And that's why I use DeleteMe, another sponsor of today's video. Delete Me removes your info from hundreds of data broker websites to help cut the risk of getting scammed. And their data privacy experts work all year long to keep tabs on who's got your info. And here's the cool part.

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Next up on their list of creepy things that can tank your home value, power plants. Ooh. The Simpsons. National Association of Realtors, man, they are getting a lot of love in this one, says the proximity of a power plant drags down a home's value by 5.3% on average. The report says, quote, the perceived dangers of living near a power plant very dramatically, depending on type, from seemingly harmless solar to the dreaded nuclear.

In general, having a power plant in the neighborhood is associated with lower property prices. That one feels fair. I personally, again, would not want to live right next to a nuclear power plant. Why are they building neighborhoods in the vicinity of these plants? I don't know. It should be a nuclear wasteland and nothing more. Maybe a Kmart, if you want to put one out, that's fine by me. but not a home where children live.

I don't want to be looking at that. What's coming out of these, Pat? We don't know. What is that smoke? You don't want that smoke. You know what it is? It's the stuff that's in vapes. I think that's what's coming out.

They bottle it up and put it in those little USB drives. All right, we're already at number nine, last on the list. A creepy house number. What is a creepy number, guys? Come on. You would think the number on your door would be the least of your worries when selling a house, but unlucky number 13 could cost you some cash

with superstitious buyers. British property site Zupla. Is that how they say Zillow in British? Homes in the UK with 13 on the door brought in around $12,273 less than the average home price. Okay, I... I'm not superstitious. I am a little stitious.

I'm wondering if they even number homes as they're... Like, I'm wondering if they just skip that these days. Like these days, you don't see like 13 Main Street. It's always like 2734. Like they make it so big to avoid the scary numbers. Another one that would creep me out is a 666, I would just personally not buy it. I'm a man of faith, and I don't want that heby-giby in there. Don't need it.

Mark of the Beast, no, thank you. All right, thank you, Money Talks News, for another entertaining and truthful article. All right, so what lessons can we learn here? Well, if you're in the market for a house right now and you're not afraid of power lines or creepy numbers, this may be a great way to find a more affordable home. And for those of you looking to sell, there's a few things you can do to boost your home's value even if your house looks like the haunted mansion.

And if you want to see which upgrades are totally worth the money and which ones are definitely not, just click right here to watch this next video or use the link in the description. That's it for today. If you enjoyed this video, hit the like button, hit the subscribe button, and share this video with the creepy little translucent girl

you saw in your basement while you were cleaning the black mold. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time.