For sale - $850,000 house in Amityville, N.Y: 3.5 baths, four baths, 3,600 square feet, central air, and, oh yes, potentially angry ghosts floating around the home looking to drive you screaming from the house in the dead of night.

That's more or less the story with the famed "Amityville Horror" house, which was recently listed on Zillow.com.

The home has been rumored to have ghosts and demons after a 1974 mass murder when a deranged family member shot and killed his parents and four siblings. The murder spree became the topic of a national best-selling book and starred in several feature-length films.

The sale of the home (to be fair, the current residents report no ghostly sightings or maniacal pigs floating outside the window, as seen in both the book and in film) brings an interesting point. Should owners of home tell potential buyers beforehand the residence was the scene of a horrific crime or suicide, or that ghosts and ghouls have taken up residence in the attic?

It's not a far-fetched question. Several states have laws on the docket that state homeowners have to be completely transparent about any past crimes, family members who have passed away in the home, or reported incidents of psychic phenomena like poltergeists.

"It all depends on where you live," says Candace Ramirez, a spokesperson for Estately, a home buying experience online firm. "Some states, such as California, require sellers to disclose if someone has died in the house, while others do not."

Ramirez says it's always a good idea to be transparent about hauntings, for two reasons. "First, honesty will help avoid surprises and lawsuits from buyers, for one," Ramirez says. "There are also cases where paranormal history is a big draw. New Orleans, for example, proudly dubs itself "America's Most Haunted City."

There is legal precedence on the issue. In 1991, a New York court ruled in favor of a homebuyer who purchased a home, unaware that it was haunted. The ruling in Stambovsky v. Ackley, or more informally known in legal circles as "The Ghostbusters Case," held that the former homeowner had frequently addressed the residence as haunted (a story even appeared in Reader's Digest saying so), but did not mention the "hauntings" to a new buyer. The court ruled that, as a "matter of law," the house was haunted, and that the previous owner should have told the new buyer before selling the property.

Seemingly no detail is too small when it comes to revealing a crime, suicide, or ghostly activity in a "for sale" home.

"I have a friend who sold a condo at the Hancock Tower in Chicago years ago and had to disclose a dent on one of the cross-beams that went in front of the window as one which was caused by someone bouncing off it when he jumped from the roof," says Ben Weinberger, a legal expert based in Philadelphia. "Additionally, I purchased a house in Prairie Village, Kansas, years ago in which the seller -- which was an estate -- had to disclose the suicide that occurred in the bedroom, and we added an amendment to the contract that included the coroner's report about having cleaned-up the blood."

While disclosure rules vary by state, some limits to what homeowners must report do exist. "For example, in California, household deaths only need to be revealed if they happened in the last three years," notes Christina Chambers, a Realtor based in Lake Elsinore, Calif. "In fact, my daughter is selling her house right now and has to reveal her ghost."

Homeowners are particularly compelled to report crimes, murders, mayhem and afterworld spirits if a potential homebuyers asks.

"The laws vary by state but typically, if the buyer asks, they need to be honest," says Deb Tomaro, a real estate broker with RE/MAX Acclaimed Properties, in Bloomington, In. Even, as in the Ghostbusters case, if you talk to friends and neighbors about a haunting in your home, you're compelled to report that to any homebuyers, Tomaro states. "If the seller promoted the house as haunted, the seller can't use the defense that the house isn't haunted," she notes.

While some homebuyers may be thrilled to buy a haunted house, don't bet on that fact, advises Sarah Findel, a real estate advisor at Engel & Volkers, in Monmouth County, N.J. "Divulging this type of information can help or hurt you," she says. "There is a fine line. In my opinion, I would say that most people would prefer to live in a ghost free home. In many states, it is a law to provide full disclosure. Be it ghosts, murderers or suicide, you must reveal that these events have or are occurring."