New Website: That Dead-People Smell in Your House May Have Been Dead People

Ever wonder about that dark spot that you couldn’t bleach out of the living-room floor when you moved into your too-cheap pad? Feel like you’re being watched in the bathroom? Cursed at work? Maybe it’s because someone kicked the bucket in your house, at least according to the new aptly titled website DiedInHouse.com.

Hosted by the always-classy GoDaddy, the disclaimer-ridden site promises a “certified report” of all the DOAs who have literally dropped in your crib for as low as $11.99. Check out their slick YouTube ad campaign:

The site is the brainchild of Roy Condrey, a software developer in South Carolina who until this year was probably best known, if at all, as an Air National Guard officer. But his “I see dead people” business seems to be taking off, judging from the news buzz — and the site’s own forums. (“I was/am a skeptic, I did not believe in ghost [sic], but after the following event, I became a little more open to it,” one typical post read.)

On his site, Condrey points out that most states don’t require deaths in homes to be disclosed to potential buyers and renters. “I bought a house and later found out that man had died in it from an illness and his wife died a month later,” he writes. “I was a little upset, I figured it was a law to disclose that information. I quickly discovered that it is not.”

That’s true — and often after a grisly murder, like the slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, a home’s address is changed by the sellers to obscure its history. But those facts also make it difficult for a records-aggregation-and-curation service like Condrey’s to get down to the reliable truth.

Condrey concedes that “the data we provide is from public record.” In other words, you’re buying what’s essentially available for free from open sources like death certificates and property records.

Besides, what’s the big mystery here? “A lot of people died in their houses,” wroteone commenter on DiedInHouse.com’s Facebook page. “If the house you’re buying is, say, over 70 or 80 years old, you’re almost guaranteed the occupants died there.”

Still, if you must know whether there’s something supernatural behind that chilly corner in the bedroom, hit up the site. Or just call this girl.

On second thought, maybe don’t.

Adam Weinstein was Fusion’s senior editor in charge of digital investigations. He has also worked for Gawker, Mother Jones, and the Wall Street Journal.