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

[lucy889]

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?

Absolutely not!

Not a murder, but a pretty violent suicide, place was a state by all accounts. A young couple bought it for a heck of a bargain, great area, fab catchment for highly rated primaries/secondaries. The guy was a tradesman so gutted/re-did and made it his own. Not sure I would have been able to stop thinking about it, but I’m glad it was sold and looked after.

I mean, you're right, insofar as they hold energy. But spooky energy? I probably would. I'm more concerned about the size of the garden and if it's got a decent boiler. I might be put off by resell value but realistically most houses of a certain era will have had people die in them. I think you have to declare in the USA, could be wrong.

I live next door to a house that someone has died in, but I don't give it a second thought. Someone currently rents it but only lives here part of the year because of work.

Elizabeth Bowen wrote a brilliant story about just this called The Cat Jumps. It’s very spooky.

Same.

Yes, bricks and mortar absorb energy from what went on the house.

That is SO very silly to me. I’d love it to be true, mind.

Died or was murdered?

People die in houses all the time...it's barely worth noting. My grandmother, father and uncle all died at home. Probably all of us live in or next to a house where someone once died.

I think committed suicide - my dad at the time said not to mention it to some of his ex's relatives as they were sensitive about those things. But it didn't upset me, tbh we didn't really know them.

Yes of course as likely to be a bargain! More house for your buck

Yep

It was in the 90's.

So the Lidl where Shipman murdered all those people holds dark, negative energy in the middle aisle? Genuinely curious.

I don't think so. Natural death yes but a murder I'm not sure...

I've been inside Nielsens flat in Cranley Gardens (after he was caught). There was a real sense of foreboding in there. Especially at the time I went in, there was still the bare minimum of furniture in there. Whether it was actually his or not, I couldn't comment, but the fact that it WAS there, was also enough for me to get the hell out

If it was a ‘case closed’ and the house was perfect then yes.
If however it was at all likely to attract ‘tourists’ (case unsolved/ so notorious netflix make a documentary/so well known locally it’s the first thing people say) then no, I wouldn’t.

We know that at least three people died in their beds in our house (over the many years the family lived here from the 1880s on). My DH has been restoring the house for the past 5 years (it was derelict when we bought it) and he says he has not heard from them at all in that time despite being there every day (he doesn't believe in anything like that so I ask him as a joke!). He did find an old coin under the floor. Nothing else of note!

On the subject of the thread, no I wouldn't live in that house. Not logical but I just wouldn't.

Interestingly, a lady committed suicide in the house next door to my mum's. This was in the 60's and mum saw her body being taken out which haunted her. Ever since then she's referred to it as 'the Unlucky House". Nobody who has moved in since has stayed there very long and/or have suffered some misfortune (divorce, domestic violence, ill-health etc.).

No. Definitely not. Psychgeography etc.

I wouldn't discount it.
People are right to mention resale value though. Also consider "tourists".

I do think places absorb energy but I think that they can also be bought back to life iyswim? I don't think there will always be a predominantly bad energy.

British houses can be old. There will have been all sorts of nasty stuff and unhappiness happen in them.

Yes

I think if it was a very infamous front page headline murder case, I would be concerned about "woo tourists" and paranormal obsessives constantly knocking on the door. The village I grew up, a schizophrenic man living so his mother stabbed her to death during an episode. It made a small column in the local news. Terribly sad and horrifying story but not notorious . That said I would probably feel uneasy in that house, because I would be thinking about it . I get quite spooked as it is because of my history (traumatic childhood, no actual murder but plenty of not nice things happened in my own childhood home. I just want to live a peaceful life. That said I do find threads like this fascinating in a morbid sort of way!

Yes, it wouldn't bother me.

Murder is horrific but I don't believe in spirits, ghosts or houses holding energy.

I would be concerned about the re-sale value given the thread bit if I knew it was a permanent move, no issue.

There is a huge difference between someone dying in a house and someone being violently killed. As many have said on this thread loads of houses will have been the scene of a person's death, my mum died at home while sitting on her settee. So much better than dying in hospital, she was with her best friend who had come over to visit due to my mum being unwell. We had no problem selling the house and I would have no issue buying a home where a natural death had occurred. A cruel and violent murder is totally different.

I used to work in LA Housing and there were several "unusual" deaths of tenants, often sadly just through substance or alcohol abuse and I don't recall there being any particular problem re-letting the properties, although many of them were on "hard to let" estates.

Weirdly, one that sticks in my mind is where an elderly tenant had died while staying with his daughter hundreds of miles away. His house was offered to a young mother and she wouldn't accept until I swore to her that he hadn't died in the house. I then made it worse by saying any house older than about 50 years (this was in the 1990s) had probably had someone die in it, she was horrified.

She just couldn't bear the thought of living in a house where anyone had died, which I found a bit strange but I suppose I had more experience of death at the time.