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?

But you'd have no way of knowing if a murder had been committed there so long ago.

I dunno, where I live, there are generational gossips and no fucker ever leaves and half of them have nothing else to do! I’m often bored to the point of tears by someone at school pick up taking about some crime that was committed in the 50s and how proud they are their great uncles, wife’s cat was the ringleader.

They all couldn’t wait to tell me about the murder that happened in my house when I moved here a few years ago. They relished every second.

Yeah, @Mydogisamassivetwat , but the pp was talking about murders that had taken place hundreds of years ago...

I love the thought of your mum tutting at youths and their messy habits and fretting about them going out without coats or eating their five a day etc 😊

I know, I was being light-hearted.

No, but I have experienced some things that make me believe in spirits of people who have passed away lingering or visiting. Things that can't be explained away by natural causes. I wouldn't want to live in a house where someone had met a violent death, but I'm absolutely fine with living in a house where people have passed away. I grew up in a house where doors would open/close (and still do) I remember being concerned as a child and my Mum said 'Its only old John, Dorothy, next door said he was a lovely man' He was the first person to live, and die in the house when it was build, so I got used to it. I recently moved back into my family home, after my Mum, and before her, my Dad passed away there too. I hadn't mentioned anything to my Kids, but they soon noticed the doors as I had as a child. I feel close and protected by 'Old John' and now by my Mum and Dad too, but I do feel it depends on the type of person you are. If someone does not believe or isn't open to spirits, I don't think you would notice them, which is why some people think it's a load of rubbish! 😂

I was going to ask who the hell takes their dog to a house viewing? My dog has absolutely no say whatsoever in any house I might buy - if she refuses to enter it's more likely that someone has spilled something that she objects to the smell of or that it smells of another, much bigger and more aggressive, dog.

They say 'animals always know.' No, they don't. Mine can barely respond to her own name, I'm certainly not trusting her in the business of buying a home.

What was its history?

112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville came up for sale a few years back but my husband said no!! We couldn't afford it anyway. And we are in England so it would've been a long commute. I was still gutted though

I don't think it would bother me if the price was right.

Forty years ago, when I first moved to this town, I rented a room in a house where someone had taken their own life just four years earlier. Someone fairly well known actually. I didn't know that at first but found out after I had been there a few months. Honestly, it never bothered me.

In recent years I believe it has been known for fans to turn up outside this house on a sort of vigil cum fan trail thing. Now I am glad that hadn't got started when I still lived there as that would have bothered me a bit.

Yes. Wouldn't bother me.

I would be more inclined to buy it than a similar house without no crime past. It would be a hell of an icebreaker when having friends around, wouldn't it?

Either 195 Melrose Avenue, or 24 Cranley Gds, Muswell Hill. I do remember an article in one of the Sunday Supplements years ago, on people who lived in houses where terrible things had happened, and one of the addresses was Cranley Gardens .
I wouldn’t buy a house with a violent history as it would always be on my mind. My house is 200 years old and there will have been deaths but as far as I know nothing violent.

Just suddenly thought of 10 Rillington Place.....😮

The cottage we lived in for 25 years showed up in a map of the town dating back to the 1800’s, heaven’s knows what happened there in the past.
There is an undertaker immediately across the road from the cottage and the field just behind our old cottage, where I used to take our dog to run about, is marked on the house deeds and old town maps as ‘Gallows’s Hill’, pretty easy to guess what went on a stones throw from our old place.

I would do that too! But happy to admit I'm a bit odd as well! Seems sensible to me...

There’s a house on my estate where the father beat his 4 kids and wife to death and then hung himself. They werent found for a few days as the father had told the school etc that they were going away.

Some people wanted the house demolished but it was sold to another family and fairly recently sold again.

I could never have lived there, I just wouldn’t have slept at night but people have and do, I suppose it depends on your feelings and whether you are sensitive.

I did look through the estate agent pics and I have to say the place looked cold and unloved. I didn’t get a good vibe from the photos at all.

I recommend the website londondarktourist.com. It covers Christie and Rillington Place and has detailed maps and photographs of the site, past and present. The space that no. 10 occupied was never built upon and contains a private memorial garden on the footprint of the house.

Presumably the person who killed them is locked up, so its not like you'd be in any more danger living there than any other house.
As for the fact someone died there, you never know, especially with older houses, how many people may have passed away in it.
Wouldn't bother me in the slightest, infact, might even get it cheaper or have a better shot at getting an offer accepted as there will be less competition.

I definitely would. I believe there are spirits to a point but not hauntings, and I'd use the building's history for a good discount.
If I did end up getting haunted I'd hire a witch doctor and trap the g-g-ghost in a dolls house, and donate it to an opp's child or something.

My brother bought a house where the previous owner had hung himself, there were still rope marks on the landing bannister.

I am an ex estate agent and have sold several houses where murders have taken place.
There was one in particular where the crime was still unsolved. It was a random stabbing of a woman in a bedroom. I had to report details of every viewing to the police and they had set up a camera in the front bedroom to view people who stopped to look at the house. They told me that the perpetrators often came back to the scene of the crime.
The house sold OK and the crime was solved in an unexpected way a few years later.

Many years ago, my father used to give a man down the road a lift to work. He lived with his wife, grown-up daughter and their dog and they were a very nice family, friendly but not intrusive.
One evening, the father stabbed his wife, daughter and the dog to death, then hanged himself from the banisters. I am not being flippant when I say that my dad worried for years that he had said something on the journey to trigger it.
I have always had mixed feelings about suicide. The person involved obviously is in such turmoil that they don’t think of the suffering their action brings, not just to people who love them but also to neighbours, colleagues and other acquaintances, anyone who knew them, in fact. That makes it a selfish act in my eyes, but I realise I am not in a position to judge.

Yes.
I once, many years ago, lived in a house where mum had thrown her endlessly screaming baby on the coal fire.
But, if you think it's going to bother you, or are worried about difficulties selling it on later, obviously don't go ahead.

I suggest making a couple of unhurried viewings. Make at least one an unaccompanied visit if you can. You can better assess your feelings without an estate agent following you around with sales patter. Try visualising what the house would be like redecorated and with your own possessions in place.
You'll soon get a better idea of how much the events matter to you personally balanced against its being the perfect house in theory.
As time passes, what happened there previously will recede in people's minds.
Good luck with everything.

That’s horrific about the baby- Assuming the poor little mite didn’t survive- That’s absolutely criminal.

She could have dumped the baby in a place where he or she could be found-

She must have been mentally Ill to have done that.

Poor child.
He or she was probably neglected and hungry to have cried so much - happy babies don’t endlessly cry.