To ask if a house is haunted before I buy it

[pineapple7peach]

As the title says. Irrational childhood fear which I never grew out of. I don't know if I even believe in the paranormal but my worst nightmare is buying a house I'm too frightened to live in.

Would I be an embarrassment if I asked the estate agent/seller this question?

🤣

WTF. I’d have noped straight out to the nearest Premier Inn.

what happened in the second property?

Even if, no one will tell you this. It's like when someone is getting killed at home etc. You won't hear it from house owners who try to sell.

I'm conforted by the fact that I've never experienced a haunting in my life, because ghosts dont exist.

I guess it might go a bit like this...

Moonah!

Reminds me of the 90's sitcom, ''So Haunt Me'' about a family moving into a house haunted by a Jewish ghost.

Pretty funny, available on Youtube.

Op, you have my sympathy here. No I don't believe in ghosts but some houses can still be a bit.....spooky. I lived in one particular house in Lincolnshire, about 4 years ago now. We moved in not long after the birth of my daughter so I had spent a fair bit of time alone in that house, with just the baby and couple cats for company.

It was a beautiful, older house but I always felt unsettled when alone. I suffered from PPA after the birth so it was actually really detrimental to my state of mind at the time too.

Hard to explain it, but always felt like I was never ''alone'' - I would go to the bathroom and lock myself in and then work up the courage to unlock it again when all done.

Mentally, on a couple occasions I did wield an object from the bathroom upon opening the door, just in case.

Realistically, I knew it was just a creaky old house but I would stare longingly at the clock each evening until everybody else returned home from work.

I'm so happy to not live there anymore. Ironically, and- sadly- , my current place is only 5 years old and my stepmum's aunt DID die here. Its perfectly fine.

I can answer your question for you. It's not haunted.

My brothers house previously belonged to a woman who said she was a witch. She had wierd pictures up and it was very dark and absolutely packed with stuff. Before they moved in the got their local priest to come in and bless it, I think he scattered sage too.

@pineapple7peach Find a house you like. Buy it. Get it exorcised. Problem solved.

I'd just go with vibes to be honest.
Although when I was viewing my flat, something pulled my hair bobble straight clean out of my head in the middle of the kitchen. I took this as a sign from my granny to go for it and put an offer in immediately 😂 two years on there has been no more bobble pulling or any other ghostly interactions

I'm a renter so maybe not exactly the same but my house is linked to crime (not murder but swat team raid that made the papers). It stood empty for years then got bought at auction by my landlord who then couldn't find a tenant so it stood empty again. Long story short we got a big house in a good area dirt cheap and thats all I care about.

Guess I'm not bothered by any of this stuff as many houses I lived in have had these supposed 'turn offs' but if its the right price I don't care.

For the first 5 or so years of living here a couple of random times per year at night a police helicopter would just hover directly over us for ages (I'm guessing its flagged as a 'problem' house on a list somewhere) but even thats long stopped now (they must have got bored of watching my very dull life lol an hours infrared video of me vegging on the couch, stuffing my face and watching netflix is unlikely to be a riveting crime drama for them).

Why is it people think only old houses would be haunted? I think Victorian and earlier eras must own the rights to haunt, you very rarely hear of a punk ghost or shell suited phantom.

Also how come ghost are always like young mournful murdered women in grey etc... the majority of people that have died at home would have been old or died of disease.

To be fair if a constant hacking cough, a screaming sick baby or the smell of vomit/diarrhea harassed me constantly I might genuinely get irritated and move and also might check with the next vendor that no ghost with loud ailments lived there but luckily it doesn't seem to be an issue anyone faces.

As for the oldies, I struggle to be threatened by 90 year old Beryl, her lavander perfume and the occasional creek of her cloudy walking frame though. You live on Beryl, you live on.

Maybe they just don’t stand out as much as a skeleton in a crinoline @NooNakedJacuzziness .
You could be walking past ghosts daily and not know it.
Fritz Leiber’s short story Smoke Ghost is a bit dated now but pulls the Spook firmly into the industrial age. Robert Westall wrote a story about a haunted bus ride that includes modern ghosts too.

@JusthereforXmas a violent or tragic death is more likely to lead to an unquiet spirit than a long life well lived.

If I ever see C, E and F on an estate agents details, I'm avoiding the place like the plague!
Incidentally, funniest thread I've read on MN - so far!

😂😂😂

No, being upstairs won't save you. Ken was in room 611.

I'm reading a series of books at the moment that feature not one but two 1980s ghosts. It's very refreshing.

Nah. New builds make lots of noise as they settle. Mine sounds like we've got a ghost cat to keep the real cats company (seriously - they couldn't have a better alibi than being sat in front of me when the floorboards decide to make a noise identical to a cat jumping off a bed onto the floor upstairs).

Was it in North London? If so, it's about 1.5 miles from me and I did my nurse training there.

Back to the OP, ask away, but unless the EA actually believes in ghosts, and as most people don't s/he probably won't either, the answer is likely to be no of course not.

You could have quite a pub crawl - there's lots of pubs in Devon reputed to be haunted!

I like the fact that you're absolutely fine with a possible phantom cat 🐈