Would you live in a house where there had been a murder?

[1988TBT]

Just that really… DP and I looking at buying a second property to rent out. It’s underpriced and chain free… because 18 months ago the husband murdered his wife in one of the bedrooms. It’s put me off a good amount but DP is still keen to go ahead with the sale and says there will be lots of people that won’t want t rent it but it won’t put EVERYONE off. Would it put you off?

No I wouldn’t want to live there

im just wondering if you go ahead and buy it and then rent out if you would have to tell potential renters about the history of it , because all im thinking is if you dont , and they take out a tenenacy ,get chatting to someone in the town or next door neighbours /find out that way ,it is possible you would have some very aggreived tenents on your hands wanting to know why they werent told .

i think it wouldnt bother some people ,but i do think people should have a choice of knowing though , thats the only catch i see

I couldn’t live there, I’d think about what had happened too much

Yes, I would not buy a place with such a tragic history.

It would bother me, even though reason says it’s just a house.

It would probably put me off tbh, although something similar happened in my mum's house and she has lived there happily for 20 years so obviously some people wouldn't mind.

I’d like to say it wouldn’t bother me but actually I think it really would, even if I tried not to let it. I’m not even superstitious in any way but somehow houses have a good or a bad vibe and I think I’d feel uncomfortable with its history.

@521Jeanie

100% I wouldn't rent it. Not a recent murder like that.

I find it distasteful to read that it's underpriced therefore a good investment. No, the reason why it's underpriced is that a woman had the misfortune to be killed by a violent man in those four tainted walls. Awful to even think of making money out of it.

If you were to give 10% of your income from it to a woman's refuge charity then perhaps I could swallow the idea.

Luckily you don't need to 'swallow the idea' because it has absolutely sod all to do with you. Fuck me, some people are weird.

Someone said a house isn't a home till it has seen a birth a marriage and a death. Mine has certainly seen all of those, but a recent murder I couldn't cope with. I also wouldn't want to be there and tell someone local where I lived and them go "oh where X happened".... these things live long in the community memory especially if the people concerned were well known and liked.

The small bedroom in our first house definately had an odd feel about it. It was always cold in there and my daughter would never settle. We did a lot to the property but I wasn't unhappy to sell it. I later found out a baby died in their back in the 50's.

When I was at uni we rented on a street where there had been a murder less than a year before. It was a very high profile murder and not very nice as it was a child. When we were sorting the house I only realised it was "the" Street after we had signed and freaked out, so off on a Google search I went. Thankfully it wasn't our house but I was so bothered by the house that I used to walk the long way round to lectures to avoid walking past. It was rented out to Chinese students who had no idea.

My friend rented somewhere where another very high profile murder had happened again national news. My friend is not at all woo but she was freaked out. There was a very odd "feel" and it was very creepy. I wouldn't rent anywhere that there had been a murder, in fact when buying a house I checked there definitely hadn't been anything horrible happen in our house (that I could find).

There's a property in my area in a really expensive development that's been on the market for years, underpriced, because a woman was murdered there a few years ago.

I would not buy it, either to live in or to rent out. After all, you want ice stable tenants who stay for ages and ages, and that's less likely if the property's history is or gets known.

I wouldn’t live in a house where a murder has been committed but as PP have said we can’t always know what went on in our homes before we lived there. I moved into a lovely small cottage as a single parent with a two year old many many years ago. An elderly neighbour took great delight in telling me that the old man who lived there previously had died from smoke inhalation in a fire at the cottage. We lived there for fifteen years it was a very happy home for us. I somehow always felt that the man who died was a nice man and wouldn’t wish us any harm. My present house I have always felt ‘doesn’t like me’ I know that probably doesn’t make sense!

For me it would depend completely on the recency and what the death was,

I couldn't have lived here....Although they've done a good job of refurb

www.thesun.co.uk/news/12697264/dennis-nilsen-home-owners-itv-documentary/

Someone was shot dead right outside my front door during the height of the NI Troubles, there's still a bullet lodged in the brick garden wall. I'm very woo and if I had of known before we moved in I probably wouldn't have but honestly there has never been an issue and it's always been a happy healthy home for us

It would put me off I’m afraid.

I don’t know why it would put someone off tbh. Go for it.

@521Jeanie

100% I wouldn't rent it. Not a recent murder like that.

I find it distasteful to read that it's underpriced therefore a good investment. No, the reason why it's underpriced is that a woman had the misfortune to be killed by a violent man in those four tainted walls. Awful to even think of making money out of it.

If you were to give 10% of your income from it to a woman's refuge charity then perhaps I could swallow the idea.

thing is houses like these are always going to be underpriced , as thats the only way they might get someone to buy it , otherwise you have perfectly good houses that people could live in sitting empty and decaying for years and years , i do see your point though

but sometimes its harder on the neighbours of these houses to see them empty like this , the jonbenet ramsey house sat empty for years until it was sold and the woman that bought it to live in with her big family said the she had neighbours falling over her telling her how happy they were the house would be lived in again instead of them looking at it empty as a permant terrible reminder of the murder .

even though they lived in it happily for a number of years when she went to downsize she couldnt sell it though and gave up in the end .

shanann and chris watts house is lovely ,yet 3 years on sits empty , couldnt even sell it during an auction , meanwhile the neighbours have a steady stream of visitors to it , peering through the front door panels , filming it , taking pics , to the point several want it demolished . really selling these houses cheap so someone can make a good investment is better than they sit empty like haunting reminders even if it might seem distastefull

Yes it would put me off as I know I would think about it whilst in the room

It wouldn't put me off. Tragedy can happen anywhere at any time. The house is made of bricks and mortar and does not somehow retain residual memories of the murder. If it was an unsolved murder, that would put me off though.

I don't know how I'd feel, but we had a very gruesome double murder nearby and people moved in quite soon after and seem happy.

You're not going to live in it.
I would live there I'm a bit woo so I'd thank the lady give her my deepest condolences, light a candle for her and say goodbye.

Yes it would put me off. Having lived in a house where a girl had hung herself in my wardrobe, and it was the only house I've ever lived in that if I were in it on my own, I had to have every light on in the house and could not sleep until my parents got home.

I only found out when I was leaving for uni', that Mum and Dad had got that place cheap, because it was well known for being 'that' house, where 'that' happened. We were from out of town, so I didn't know, but everyone had assumed that I did!

It would depend on the circumstances. If it had been something violent, I probably wouldn't feel comfortable.

Possible issues:
Complications from family / tourists / press (my house is still on Google as 'haunted' ffs...)
House feels creepy / haunted (to you / OR tenants / OR next purchaser)
Neighbours won't shut up about it ( mine is still yapping on 25 years later, now trying to spook my kids