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All the physical remnants of R.J. Schaefer's death are gone. No bullet holes in the walls. No blood in the foyer. No crime scene tape along the grassy front yard.

But a little more than a year after the prominent real estate developer was shot to death during a robbery, the home on American Heritage Drive Northeast still carries traces of his death, at least to potential home buyers Michael and Kimberly Farrell.

They spent Tuesday house hunting high-end homes in safe neighborhoods. The simple, expansive Schaefer home caught their eye - until they learned what happened there on Nov. 17, 2005.

Then they shook their heads. No way.

Luckily for Schaefer's surviving family, another buyer has not been dissuaded by the home's history.

It's now under contract with a buyer fully aware of Schaefer's death, the seller's real estate agent said.

Under New Mexico law, the seller and agent didn't have to tell the buyer about the home's history if it didn't physically affect the property.

But, as Albuquerque Metropolitan Board of Realtors Chairwoman Cathy Colvin says, there is more to a home than sturdy walls.

In the real estate world, homes where homicides and suicides occurred, where people with HIV have lived or where ghosts are purported to roam, are dubbed "stigmatized property."

At the least, the stigma creates a challenge for ethical sellers and agents willing to air the home's history.

At the most, the stigma - and its economic implications - creates a whole group of people unwilling to even acknowledge what the walls of certain homes have seen.

The owners of the home near Monte Vista Boulevard and Central Avenue Northeast where Kathryn Hauser, 52, was bludgeoned and raped Jan. 19, 2005, have instructed subsequent renters to not discuss the woman's death with anyone. They wouldn't talk about it, either.

The owner of the home where real estate agent Garland Taylor was shot in the head as he showed the home for sale said he didn't want to talk about living there because he hopes to try to sell it next year. He doesn't want the memories fresh in any buyer's mind.

By law, he could tell his agent not to disclose to potential buyers the history of the home on the far east end of Pino Avenue Northeast near Eubank Boulevard and Paseo del Norte.

That choice is legal in New Mexico and almost every other state.

Real estate agent CJ Ciddio told the buyers of the upscale home in the 4900 block of Dover Court Northwest, where Bernadette and John Ohlemacher were shot to death Aug. 2, 2005, that someone had died there but that he couldn't disclose more information, said Yvonne Gonzales, who represented the buyers.

The buyers - Gonzales' daughter and son-in-law - didn't learn the details until after the closing.

"It wasn't upsetting; it was just that my daughter and son-in-law were a little shook up about it, but they already had bought it," Gonzales said.

"The first night, they were scared to stay in it and they don't want their daughter to know."

The tension has eased since the Ohlemachers' daughter, who survived the shooting by hiding in a closet, visited them one night.

"She explained it was a happy home and a lot of happy memories were made there," Gonzales said.

A similar conversation with friends of Josephine Selvage, 81, raped and strangled in her pristine Northeast Heights home near Cleveland Middle School a few days before Halloween 2005, helped its new residents.

Richard Romero and Danielle Marquez bought the house a few months after Selvage was found in her bedroom, the home's master suite.

Romero and Marquez now sleep in the bedroom and aren't bothered one bit by the events that happened on the floor there, they say.

Romero had looked the address up in news archives and heard from friends who knew Selvage, a longtime schoolteacher.

Knowing that she was a loved mother and interesting person with a happy life made moving into the home almost an act of respect. They didn't want the house to go to waste, Romero said.

"It was just a horrible thing that happened to her," he said. "We don't think of it. It doesn't affect us."

The Selvage home went for more than listed price, Romero said, and he was told upfront about the history from both the seller's and buyer's agents.

The Ohlemachers' home sold for a slightly lower price than average, Gonzales said, though she couldn't say whether the price was related to the home's history.

Michael Farrell, looking at the Schaefer home this week, said any home with such a past would have to be a good deal for him to even consider buying it.

And, since learning New Mexico doesn't have a law requiring such honesty, he plans to start asking about the criminal history of homes he and his wife consider.

Otherwise, he said, "It would be like marrying someone and then finding out they were married three times before."