Centro Estudios Ingleses C-65: DO YOU CARE FOR A HAUNTED HOUSE?

BURRILLVILLE, R.I. — The offers for the haunted house came from around the world, from secretive buyers desiring to shield their intentions, and others who would pay any price to tear out “the evil” inside its nearly 300-year-old walls.

Out of all of those seeking to buy the farmhouse that inspired “The Conjuring” movie, homeowners Cory and Jennifer Heinzen chose a buyer with similar passions: a Boston developer with a deep belief in the paranormal.

“I came to visit and thought, ‘I have to have this house,” said Jacqueline Nuñez, the owner of the WonderGroup LLC.

Jennifer and Cory Heinzen, who are paranormal Investigators, stand inside the home they sold.BARRY CHIN/GLOBE STAFF

Nuñez paid around $1.525 million, about 27 percent higher than the asking price of $1.2 million, said real-estate agent Benjamin Kean, of Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty.

“This purchase is personal for me,” Nuñez said in an interview with the Globe. “It’s not a real-estate development. It’s around my own beliefs.”

Nuñez has pledged to continue the paranormal business that the Heinzens started in the farmhouse at 1677 Round Top Road. Guests will be able to continue the nightly paranormal investigations, day tours will resume, and there will be livestreamed events. The Heinzens will remain involved, she said.

“I’m proud of them, I know you are all very proud of them,” Nuñez said. “They are upstanding people with great integrity. I know I have big shoes to fill, and I intend to do it.”

The Heinzens, who are paranormal investigators from Maine, had bought the house in 2019 with the intention of opening it up for visits by paranormal researchers. Even when the pandemic hit, they were overwhelmed with visitors — including a Globe reporter — and realized the business of running a haunted house was more than they could manage.

They posted it for sale last September and said they hoped they’d find someone who would love the home as much as they do — and who would continue the business they’d started.

“We are super, super happy to have Jacqueline as the new owner,” said Jennifer Heinzen, who has a tattoo of the house.

However, one of the conditions that the Heinzens set was that the new owner not live in the house year-round, “because the energy is so powerful,” Nuñez told the Globe later. “They put it in there as protection for the buyer.”

She said she has been interested in the paranormal since she was a child, and grew up loving a good horror movie, like “The Conjuring.” The things that go bump in the night just pique her curiosity.

Globe reporter Amanda Milkovits, center, and her sister Susanne Carpenter check for paranormal activity as owner Jennifer Heinzen stands by during an October 2020 tour.BARRY CHIN/GLOBE STAFF

“I’m a deeply spiritual person. It’s a very important part of me,” Nuñez said. “I believe we are conscious beings having a human experience, and that our consciousness continues on, we are here to learn things in lifetime and help our species evolve morally and culturally. ... This house is an opportunity to connect with people who’ve moved on and died, that’s the interactivity here and the engagement with the people who have passed.”

“I feel very lucky that they selected me, because there were so many offers, even higher than mine,” she said.

Kean, of Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty, said that there was nothing comparable to this farmhouse in Rhode Island, not with its storied history. They looked to other Hollywood haunted homes — the brownstone featured in “The Exorcist” movie, the home in “Poltergeist,” the house in “Nightmare on Elm Street” — to determine an asking price.

“I can tell you quite a few people wanted to live there, that’s what surprised us the most,” he said.

The Heinzens wanted to meet with the potential buyers, in hopes of finding someone who would cherish and care for the house. So, those who made offers but wouldn’t reveal themselves or their intentions — and those who wanted to tear it down because they thought it was evil — were rejected, he said.

A "Blood Board" inside the Conjuring house, which has been hand sanded until the sander's blood permeates the board.BARRY CHIN/GLOBE STAFF

The Heinzens decided to choose Nuñez. Perhaps, the house did, too.

“You cannot doubt the energy that’s in that house. The more history, the more neighbors you speak to, its undeniable what they have over there,” Kean said. “I can tell you if that house didn’t want to be sold, it wouldn’t be sold.”

Nuñez walked around her new home Thursday, her dog and two cats sniffing and wandering around, one cat yowling in the rooms. The house has an entertainment license from the town of Burrillville, though she may approach the town next year with some ideas about expanding what the house offers. Though, as someone in the zoning office joked with her, “how do you zone for a haunted house?”

She is not afraid of whatever spirits the house contains. She hasn’t yet felt anything unusual in the house, although there is plenty of time.

“I don’t believe the energy here is malevolent. Things will happen here that will startle me, but not harm me,” Nuñez said. “I look forward to experiencing things.”

Amanda Milkovits can be reached at amanda.milkovits@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmandaMilkovits.