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Would you buy a house that somebody had been murdered in?

363 replies

lucy889 · 10/03/2025 14:18

Around 12 years ago, an awful murder involving a child and parent happened a few miles from our house, it was such a shock and the house has been empty ever since.

It's now on the market, I personally could never buy it or live there and I feel sad every time I drive by.

Would you buy it given the history if it was perfect for you?

OP posts:
IAmTheLittleThings · 10/03/2025 16:16

I don't think I would knowingly want to live in house where a murder of anyone has taken place.

If it was a well known case locally then it would always be thought of as the murder house, no matter what decor you have. People have long memories and as evidenced here some of them can't wait to remind you of the murder in your new home.

There is also the chance of rubber neckers if it's a high profile case.
I feel sorry for people in the US who own 'murder' houses as there are bus tours you can take to visit them!

I know there's Jack the Ripper (walking) tours in London but they don't stop outside houses.

chickensandbees · 10/03/2025 16:15

My main concern would be resale value and that it would put other people off.

GiveMeSpanakopita · 10/03/2025 16:15

The other thing is that if it was a notorious murder, notorious enough to have been covered by one of the many, many true crime social media channels out there, then you'll get rubberneckers standing outside taking photos.

Whoarethoseguys · 10/03/2025 16:15

I would buy it if the price was right and I liked it.
Why would a murder previously happening in the house mean the house is unsaleable? The murder didn't because of the house.
Sadly murders happen in a lot of different places people don't stop walking through the park or on a beach because a murder happened there or stop driving on a stretch of road where there was a murder.
My house is over a hundred years old all sorts of things will have happened in it, some happy and some sad but those things are past and the house has been changed many times over those hundred years.

Americano75 · 10/03/2025 16:15

Murder is bad enough, but the murder of a six year old? No way.

SoMauveMonty · 10/03/2025 16:13

No, but not because of any 'woo' reasons, but i'd worry about possibly having to deal with people coming to the house if the murder was particularly notorious, wanting to see where it happened.

I like watching forensic/crime stuff on tv - the science really interests me - but i do feel for people who currently live in what was once a crime scene, and turn on the tv to see their home in a BBC documentary.

Madewithchilli · 10/03/2025 16:12

Would have to be a really REALLY tasty deal

Limth · 10/03/2025 16:10

Yes, it's just a building and probably a cheap one at that

Like PP I love to research the history and story of houses I live in. A murder would definitely enrich that story. I'd love it, to be honest.

Pyjamatimenow · 10/03/2025 16:10

No. Having lived in a haunted house I wouldn’t chance it

Ilikeadrink14 · 10/03/2025 16:10

IVbumble · 10/03/2025 15:28

I knew someone who wouldn't buy a house because their dog wouldn't go through the front door when they viewed.

That isn’t as daft as it sounds! It’s been on tv that dogs have ‘told’ their owners they have an illness before it’s diagnosed. There was one dog that kept sniffing it’s owner’s stomach. Turned out she had stomach cancer. She went to the doctor early because of her dog, and was operated on successfully. That dog undoubtedly saved her life.

InfoSecInTheCity · 10/03/2025 16:10

Yes, presumably it doesn't come with a resident murderer, so is just a perfectly good house potentially for a very good price.

Ellie1015 · 10/03/2025 16:07

If i lived in the area when the murder happened it would probably put me off as i would associate the house with the murder.

If I was new to the area or too young to remember the event then I would buy it.

Porcuporpoise · 10/03/2025 16:07

Ilikeadrink14 · 10/03/2025 15:51

A friend’s daughter committed suicide by drowning herself. Her parents found her when they came home from shopping. To my horror, they were still living there 20 years later! How could they even go in that bathroom without ‘seeing’ the body of their daughter there every time? I just couldn’t, and still can’t, get my head around it.

If you think about their home as also being a place where they had positive memories of their daughter - a place that's connected to her- then it might be easier to understand.

ItGhoul · 10/03/2025 16:06

It wouldn't bother me one bit. It's just a building. The building didn't kill anyone.

PrinnyPree · 10/03/2025 16:04

At first I was going to answer yes, but now I'm thinking about it no. I would think about it all the time and pick at the thought like a scab. I struggle with headlines of child abuse, actually living where it happened would probably be intolerable.

I don't think I'd have serious issue with an adult murder in a house as long as it wasn't cruel or vindictive, like a burglary gone wrong.

MatildaTheCat · 10/03/2025 16:01

I think there’s a real difference between sad events or tragedy and a place where real evil took place. We lived very close to a house where two absolutely horrible murder/ attempted murder/ rapes took place and I could never pass it without feeling the bad vibe ( not like me).

That house has since been refurbished and rented for years. I could never contemplate buying somewhere like that.

GiveMeSpanakopita · 10/03/2025 16:00

No, because I believe that highly traumatic events can live on in the fabric of a physical place. There's a dark energy. I've seen two ghosts (well, saw one, heard the other) and when it comes to the metaphysical, I'm with the Bard: “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

On a more quotidian note, I believe it would be difficult to re-sell.

ForFunGoose · 10/03/2025 16:00

Yes
it’s bricks and mortar.

I might think twice if there was a shrine or any other memorial on the property.

S18 · 10/03/2025 15:58

Yes, but I would probably redo everything in the house. I’m not superstitious, but it would probably make me sad to think about what happened there.

Pipsquiggle · 10/03/2025 15:58

If it was a decent house, in a place I wanted to live, then yes. You would probably get it at a decent price.

I think 12 years is enough time to let the building move on.
I'd probably go around the house and burn sage in every room - even though I have never done this before. I would also redecorate every single room and probably the outside as well.

housethatbuiltme · 10/03/2025 15:56

Ilikeadrink14 · 10/03/2025 15:51

A friend’s daughter committed suicide by drowning herself. Her parents found her when they came home from shopping. To my horror, they were still living there 20 years later! How could they even go in that bathroom without ‘seeing’ the body of their daughter there every time? I just couldn’t, and still can’t, get my head around it.

They probably 'see' all the years of happy memories they had of her in the house instead.

housethatbuiltme · 10/03/2025 15:55

Sounds so very 'American' to worry about these things (and haunting).

Any place with history will have seen death.

Most houses around here are Victorian, people will factually have died in many of them. Many of my family members died at home. Some natural causes (from my Great-grandma dying in her sleep, my Nana who died of a sudden heart attack, my uncle who died of diabetes in his sleep, to my baby cousin who died of SIDs), a couple from suicide and even one murdered (domestic violence).

Family still live in several of those houses and the people who eventually bought the 'murder' one likely had no idea (its not like it made news, it was buried real quick by police). No one advertises that the previous owner had her head smashed in by her drunk boyfriend.

Future buyers wouldn't have know that my baby cousin died in that house either etc... when it came time to sell. In the UK 200 children a year die of SIDs and thats now, historically it was much higher so living in a house a child died in is really not that rare.

just a little statistic in the UK per year 52 children are murdered and 182 women are in domestic violence attacks most of which occur at home.

The house opposite us is for sale, this owner got a bargain because the previous one committed suicide in the house two decades ago. I doubt they plan to tell the new buyer the last owner hung themselves in the master bedroom.

You're overthinking it purely because you know but its likely far more common than you ever considered.

Inyournewdress · 10/03/2025 15:54

With the specific example you are talking about OP, I don’t think I would. I don’t think it would be cursed or haunted or anything like that, I just think I would dwell on it and be upset by it.

Ilikeadrink14 · 10/03/2025 15:51

lucy889 · 10/03/2025 14:30

It doesn't bother me the land my home is built on, who's died naturally here etc it's just I'd think of the awful circumstances all the time, the parent actually killed their child and them themselves in the hallway of the upstairs.

I wouldn't be able to walk the hallway without thinking of it.

A friend’s daughter committed suicide by drowning herself. Her parents found her when they came home from shopping. To my horror, they were still living there 20 years later! How could they even go in that bathroom without ‘seeing’ the body of their daughter there every time? I just couldn’t, and still can’t, get my head around it.

Isometimeswonder · 10/03/2025 15:50

Would not bother me one bit.
And if I got a bargain price, all the better!