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?

Yes. I've lived in houses that people have died in before. (Both strangers and people known to me). Even people I knew. It never bothered me, you just stop thinking about it after a while.

My late OH died while wrapped up in my sofa blanket. I sat with him for a few hours saying goodbye and took my blanket back at the end. I still cuddle up under it every night.

With how old a lot of the housing stock is in this country, bad things will have happened in almost every house over the years. Murder, sickness, fights, rapes, and other tragedies. We can't condemn every house that has an unsavoury past or we'd all be homeless in no time.

Do you life in Midsomer or Grantchester perchance??😂

I once unwittingly bought a small plot of land from a guy who killed his wife (supposedly accidental mushroom poisoning sixty years earlier, I don't think he was ever convicted).

I've often wondered how I would have felt if I'd known. I didn't deal with the vendor directly because he was in his 90s and lived in sheltered accommodation a long way away.

For the murder house - I probably would, if it was all I could afford. This would of course depend on the murder having been a freak occurrence and not something that happens every week in that postcode!

It's also worth remembering that if a house is very old, people will have died there and some of those deaths will have been traumatic. Obviously this doesn't have the same salience as a recent murder you've seen in the news, but still...

@Cattery - I live a few streets away from the Denis Nilsen flat - it's a very unassuming North London suburban road, but I go a bit cold whenever I go past that particular building. (DS has a friend who lives in a house further down the street).

Remember when it came on the market a few years ago the listing stated - 'it is recommended that potential buyers investigate the history of the property before viewing'. I think it was priced quite a lot lower than most flats in a fairly expensive area - so whoever did buy it probably got quite a bargain! I couldn't live there though...

@Vincenoirsrootboost I kid you not,, there have been two more this century!
Amazing name btw

No. There are 2 of these houses near me. Both a dad killing his child/children and wife.

Yes. I live in a 250+ year old cottage but have no real idea of its history prior to 1972. ANYTHING could have happened here. Could be murder or DV or mental breakdown, PTSD, psychotic delusions - any of those things would be unpleasant at the time but unlikely to impact on the actual fabric of the house.
And I love my house very much and like to think that it knows this.

I live in one now.

20 years ago, a husband murdered his wife in the kitchen. it’s a small town so the gossips just loved to collar me at any step to tell me when I moved in. But we already knew, we’d been renting down the road. It’s not affected the house price. In those 20 years, the price raised by 200k like everything else in the area and we were in a bidding war to buy this as it was a project in an area where prices were rising rapidly. So it certainly didn’t put anyone else off.

To be honest, the second I stepped into this house, it had such a happy feeling. It was a shit pit, in a shithole of an area, needed so much work but just felt wonderful, still does 4 years on.

Dennis Nilsen?

I'm not sure personally... I lived in a property that I'd found out when I'd already moved in that someone was murdered there right outside my bedroom in a case of mistaken identity 😬 it did freak me out abit and also a family member moved into a place when I was a kid where someone died of natural causes in the bath of all places! (The bath was replaced with new before it was sold to her btw) I think it just sets off alsorts of imaginations when we know these things x

No. Not because it would bother me, but because it would be hard to sell at a later date.

If you buy an old house there is a good chance someone died in it. There is a small chance awful things happened there like violence or abuse of some sort. So you never know.

Personally I would get over it if I really wanted the house enough

Yes and I have done. But I wouldn’t if the murderer had still been on the loose. I also didn’t know the details - I lived there 5 years and shortly after I’d moved out (and successfully sold it on) I read an article about his request for parole in the local paper, and that had details I was glad I hadn’t known when I lived there.

Plus it was an old house so the likelihood was there would have been other awful things there over the years, plus likely lots of happy things too.

It wouldn’t put me off.

I used to live in a house that was built on part of an old graveyard - old enough that I think they only bothered to remove the headstones prior to building. I didn’t actually know that before moving in tbf, but it didn’t bother me when I did find out. Probably because I’m not one for gardening and have never been a fan of digging.

No idea if I’ve ever lived on the site of a murder.

absolutely not. Some people might suthink it is a bit fanciful but I think that building absorb feelings and emotions and store them in their fabric. Some houses feel good when you walk in, others can have an unsettling atmosphere and I think this is due to past negative events. I just could not live somewhere where such horror had happened

And the house I grew up in, both my parents died in (separately and of old age related illness, nothing sinister). My brother and I had to sell and that house was snapped up almost before it hit the market - it's now student housing (HMO). I sometimes wonder if either of my parents is still hanging around there, spooking out the kids (by tutting loudly in my mum's case), but nobody has ever said a word.

Which address of his? I'd loved to see the listing!

I agree – not in a woo way, but whether it’s stress hormones or whatever, I would be prepared to believe there’s something in it.

Not a chance! Certainly not knowingly.

No, not a murder, especially involving a child.

Yes
if the price was right and I wanted the house.

Completely irrational to blame house, or believe it’s haunted or bad luck.

How does it do that?

No but I spook easily

No.

Yes. Especially if it made it a good price.