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?

Don't forget that the land our homes are built on will have seen plenty of history and much of it would have been pretty brutal . Wars, child sacrifices, pagan rituals, witchraft etc.

I visited Flodden battlefield in Northumberland a few years back. I have some border reivers in my family tree, on both sides of the border, and I wondered if I would find it "woo." I didn't feel or sense anything . It is just a little field tucked away in a huge country estate (Ford and Etal, if you're interested). It seemed so pleasant and ordinary in the early October sunlight, trees, pheasants, sunlight.

I think most of the time we are unaware. That said, though a murder in the 90s would spook me a bit. Wouldn't want to live there.

My parents first house was cheap because the previous owner had been murdered in the dining room...this was 1962 and the house was reduced to £2,100 from about £2,300...but more than enough for my dad!

He did check if my mum was superstitious but she was just happy to have a house. She did apparently comment that the previous occupant had been a messy eater as she was scrubbing the dining room walls!

They both loved the house, fantastic neighbours but moved because my mum got bored, something she did lots so we moved fairly frequently.

No, I really don't think I could.
In fact, I definitely couldn't.

For all those saying you can’t pick up on energies….

I viewed a house with my sister. We went upstairs and I felt uneasy, I can’t explain it but I felt the presence of a young male and he was unhappy. It was just very weird. I told my sister and I said I would feel uneasy buying it based on this strange feeling.

she questioned the estate agent why the guy was selling the property and he had only had it 2 years, turns out his son had killed himself in the house and he couldn’t take the sad memories anymore.

As you can imagine we were freaked out!

When I was flat-hunting a few years ago, Dennis Nilsen’s flat was up for sale. I noticed it because I recognised the street name and it was well below normal price for the area. The EA had put a veiled note on the property description like, “Potential buyers are advised to research the history of this property”. The flat had been completely refurbished and reconfigured as I recall, but clearly the history still had a massive impact on the price.

I wouldn’t go near such a property, but if it didn’t bother you, you could definitely snap up a bargain.

Yes I would.

The thing is all kinds of horrible things that didn't result in a bloody death could have happened in your house prior to you owning it. Unless you buy a fresh new build. But unless the perpetrator was caught/convicted you would never know.

I visit many homes due to my job never come across one yet with a bad vibe. Even though I'm a believer in the other side etc.
One place the previous owner killed himself and I never picked up anything to do with that.

When I was a child we lived in a house where someone murdered his wife and children and committed suicide. It was never really mentioned or talked about, but I'm glad we only lived there 5 years (it was the last army quarter we lived in before my Dad retired from the army).

I don't think I would. Not superstitious at all. I just wouldn't like living with the thought of what happened there!

For those saying houses don’t have vibes have you never been to see a house and not liked it for no reason or because it didn’t feel like the one? Or gone anywhere and it’s felt a bit odd, or met a person and feel the same?

A few years ago we woke and on a local Facebook page was a post about a fire in the road opposite our house, during the night. Looked out of the window to see a fire hose connected to a hydrant out side our house. We didn't hear a thing. Turns out, the estranged husband came to the house, killed his ex wife, then built a bonfire in the kitchen, set it alight and sat under a kitchen unit await his death. The fir brigade found him, alive and he was committed to a secure unit for life, but the house was burnt out. It was empty for a year or two, then the builders moved in, left the outer walls but rebuilt the rest. It was then rented out before being sold to a lovely family. It is a modern, 4 bed detached house. We walk past the house every day, and remember the incident, but ascfarcas I am aware, the new owners are very happy there.

I do believe in things absorbing energy (eg when you're house hunting and a get a good/bad feeling as soon as you walk into a house for no obvious reason) but I also think you're right that architecture etc. can also induce feelings.

There was a building by me that was demolished and people said it was haunted. It was a really weird looking building. It was obviously designed to intimidate and it was kind of scary and didn't look like any of the buildings around it. That was always going to have stories about it! I find the theories behind architecture and the impact it has and how people interact with it really interesting.

I looked at a house once. It was a foreclosure (is that a British term even?) on a victorian house that had been converted into a b&b so it had a really weird layout with doors blocked off, uneven floor boards, strange smell, random panelling and some of the rooms just didn't make sense so all a bit odd and "uncomfortable". However one of the rooms just felt awful. I walked in and had to walk straight back out again. Now logically, you could say it was because it was in an extension so was a different temperature with different walls, ceiling height etc. so would have felt different to the rest of the house. It wasn't as bright as the other rooms and was also L shaped so you couldn't see the whole room at once. However it caused such a reaction in me. Even if the rest of the house had been perfect, I wouldn't have bought it just because of this one room. The other 2 extension rooms were fine (in fact I actually loved one of them). I found out afterwards that the EA wouldn't actually even go into that room. I never found out why.

Developers bought the house and turned it into flats. The extension rooms being a single flat. Looking at pictures they moved the wall, put in bigger windows etc. It's a really lovely looking flat now with a private garden. The rest of the flats sold quite quickly and dont seem to come up very often. However, they struggled to sell this flat and had to reduce the price. It also seems to go on the market quite frequently too.

I have looked into the history of the building but there isn't really much but that room had a bad feeling and presumably still does if people won't stay in the flat despite it being beautiful and the develops seemingly addressing the architectural issues.

I would

Many years ago, an acquaintance ĺived with her boyfriend. He killed himself in their house in a particularly messy way. She arrived home, found him. Took a while to refurbish before selling. Which she never did. She continued to live there for about 5 years or more without apparent distress. I have no idea how she did this, I would have seen him every time I closed my eyes. We are all different.

Of course I’ve visited houses I didn’t like. But I don’t attribute that to anything bad that may have previously happened there.

Yes.

My mother wouldnt. Always took a dog.
Funny because i remember her doing it and thinking it was odd as a kid, but then you see the dogs go happily through most front doors and stop dead at another, you end up trusting the dogs opinion.

As for murder house - maybe if i liked it.
I suppose we live on ancient land, there cant be much of it left where something bad hasnt happened at some point.

I mean it's going to put u off to some level, guess it would be worse to buy it then find out after you've moved in, but it's all psychological at the end of the day there are lots of old houses in this country where all sorts has happened

Like Fargo I've lived in old houses and maybe at some time in the future, I might get spooky thoughts, who knows, but 12 years is rather a long time.

Nope , not if someone bought it & gifted it to me !

It wouldn’t bother me, so long as the forensic evidence had been properly managed before I was buying! I would hope to get a cheap deal… however if the house had been empty for 12 years THAT would put me off!

I think I would have to go there and see how I felt about the place.