Two years ago, in June 2019, Cory and Jennifer Heinzen closed on a three-bedroom Cape Cod located in Harrisville, Rhode Island, known as the Old Arnold Estate. Which would have made no one’s radar if not for the fact that the house is better known as The Conjuring House, which inspired the 2013 hit horror movie. Well, the Conjuring House is for sale again.
The previous owners sold it in part due to the movie’s success. After living there peacefully for 30 years, they got tired of all the trespassers and lookie-loos suddenly coming to see the “haunted house” after the movie was released.
The house’s popularity might again have something to do with its sale now too —except for different reasons. The Heinzens aren’t tired of the publicity or visitors it generates. They’ve actively drummed up publicity ever since they bought the house.
So why are they selling? Let’s take a look at that as well as what all the Heinzens have done since they’ve owned the house. Then we’ll speculate about who the new buyers might be.
Why the Conjuring House is For Sale Again
According to PopCrush, the Heinzens are true horror-preneurs. They also have a horror museum in Maine.
Traveling back and forth between there and their haunted home in Rhode Island has become a little too much, so they’ve decided it’s “time to let the property go.”
But they’re not letting it go at a loss by any means. In 2019 they bought the house for $439,000. They’re currently asking $1.2 million.
If they get it, that’s not a shabby return on investment for two years!
But will they get it? Possibly.
It seems like the housing market is crazy hot just about everywhere these days. Plus, they’ve worked diligently from the moment they bought the house to make it a paranormal tourism destination. Was their plan all along to turn it into a turnkey business?
From the beginning, that’s what it seemed like.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. As the saying goes, “If you build it, they will come.” And if people pay for whatever “it” is and you can make a living from it? Well, that is the essence of the American Dream, isn’t it?
The Welcoming Conjuring House
As they promised they’d do from the moment they bought the house, the Heinzens opened their home to paranormal investigators. (For a price, of course.) In addition to offering overnight investigations, they also hosted events and have been very welcoming to producers and filmmakers.
In fact, 2021 was a huge year for The Conjuring being in the news, thanks to the release of The Conjuring 3. Inevitably, any new release in the franchise draws attention to the home that started it all.
However, the home itself was the subject of a lot of media and events this year too.
The Sleepless Unrest, a documentary where paranormal investigators spent two weeks living in the house with the Heinzens, was released in July.
The world broadcast of Bathsheba premieres on the T+E channel in Canada on October 11. Paranormal investigator Erin Goodpipe explores the house’s haunted history from a different angle. She aims to set the record straight about the Perron family’s true story, which inspired The Conjuring, versus the Hollywood happy ending. Speaking of the Perrons…
The Dark Zone has hosted a couple of livestream events from the house. The next one, The House: A Homecoming, might be a doozie. The Perron family will all gather together in the house for the first time since they moved out in 1980. That’s happening October 29–31.
But Ghost Adventures still holds the honor of being the very first paranormal TV show to investigate the house. (Which was part of Ghostober festivities in 2019.)
Now that we’ve brought him up, Zak Bagans offers the perfect segue into the next topic of discussion…
Who will buy The Conjuring House?
Another haunted property went up for sale this year: the Lizzie Borden House. I remember speculating back then about who might buy it, and of course I wondered if Zak would. Maybe he’d turn it into an east coast branch of his Haunted Museum?
We didn’t have to wait long for a buyer to present themselves, and it was a little bit of a surprise. There was a “Ghost Adventures” aspect to it, but it had nothing to do with Zak Bagans. The ghost tour company US Ghost Adventures purchased the Lizzie Borden House.
But will Zak buy The Conjuring House? I mean, it’s got everything he loves, especially a possibly dark entity. And if he does, will he keep it open to paranormal investigators? Or make it a paranormal research center?
Or will someone else buy it? And will it be someone who wants it for a home or someone who will continue to operate it as a paranormal business?
Guess we’ll find out. You know I’ll share any details as soon as I hear of them!
Check-In
Do you think a regular family who just wants to live there could buy the house now? Or do you think it’s become too popular and it’s best to keep it as a business?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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I think if a regular family bought it, they’d be forever answering the door to curious people stopping by and wanting “just a peek.”
LOL! AGREED!!!!!