Would you buy this house? TW-suicide

[Consideringbuying]

I am a lone parent with 2 small kids and am almost through a fairly awful and dragged out divorce. The circumstances around the divorce were horrible for all of us and I'm so ready to be in a secure home and just move on from it all.

I'm (hopefully) going to be in a position to buy a house soon and there's a house has been up for sale for a couple of months round the corner from where we live. I love the area and have really liked living here. The house is much bigger and better than the one we're renting and is exactly what I'd be looking for. It's one of the nicer homes in the estate.

It's also significantly under my small budget and is about £40k under market value for other homes of the same size in the same estate. I've been told this is because the owner is wanting a quick sale however it's sat for a few months already (unheard of in this area) and was empty for about 2-3 years before that. The reason being that one of the adults in the home took their own life in the property a couple of years ago.

Initially when I heard I was a bit wary and wasn't sure if I'd want to buy somewhere that had held so much pain for the previous owners and where a traumatic death had occurred but the more I'm thinking about it I'm wondering if that's silly and I should go for it if it's still available when I'm ready?

Being so under budget would mean I could pay off earlier than anticipated and would financially be just massive for me under our current circumstances. It would also mean I'd be able to redecorate rather than having to live in it as is for a while and try to save. Its a fairly new build house too and homes in the area are well built and reliable.

The downside is that it's been empty for so long, and I'm wondering about the impact of the history of the house on my kids as its common knowledge what happened and they will probably be told at some point by friends on the street which could be upsetting for them.

So my albu:

Yabu - don't buy the house (please can you explain why you wouldn't)
Yanbu -I would buy or have bought under those circumstances before.

I maybe irrational but it would give me the chills.

It's a house. It doesn't really matter if it was a safe place for someone to end it or not.

Taking it off their hands will probably bring closure.

I would buy the house. People die in all sorts of places so wouldn't bother me. Not like there is going to be a ghost there haunting you. Re the kids depends on their age what I would tell them.

It’s a house you can fill with really happy memories

It wouldn't bother me at all but I don't have kids so it depends how upset they would be.

My kids are very young. So partly thinking they wouldn't know for a while at which point maybe it'll be old enough news not to come up...

My house was built in the 1880’s I bet there’s been a few deaths here, it would not bother me whatsoever, my friend bought a house that had a tragic murder happen, it was up for massively under valuation, she’s brought her family up there very happily, people were wary for a while but it’s almost forgotten now by most of the neighbours, sad and terrible things sadly happening. I’m not superstitious but do believe in energy and if you bring love and happiness into the house I’m sure you will all thrive!

That was also my thinking that it must be awful for the family to deal with it sitting there and it would be nice for it to be made happy.

If I could get a 40k discount because someone had committed suicide in the house, I'd absolutely buy it.

It wouldn't bother me at all tbh. If you think about it, a lot of older houses have probably had people die in them at some point.

You will need to go and view it in person I think. If it’s right for you then you will feel it, and if it’s the wrong fit you will feel that too.
I don’t think the history of the home itself would put me off. I have never lived in a home where someone has taken their own life (that I know of) but have lived in or stayed in enough Georgian/Victorian flats or houses to know that some people certainly breathed their last there. And it didn’t stop them being happy homes for me. But some holiday homes REALLY freaked me out over the years and I could feel it straight away when we arrived.

I wouldn’t think twice. Our house had a grisly murder on the first floor landing. A long time ago now, but someone had to be the first one to buy it afterwards. I love our house. Not haunted. I also lived as a student in a house where the previous owners had both died by suicide together in the garage. Likewise not haunted, and perfectly pleasant to live in.

Buy it.

Have a wonderful life in it with your kids.

Wouldn't bother me! Great to get a discount.

Buy it... But I'm Irish so I'd need to have it blessed before I could live in it!

It sounds like a bargain and ideal for you. Don't be superstitious - prior events in the house will have no impact on you (unless you listen to the doom mongers). Make it a happy home for you and your children. (I've lived in 100 year old plus houses all my adulthood and have zero idea whether anyone died in them, by their own hand or otherwise)

Not the same situation though I do have a slightly similar ethical dilemma in regards to a house.

We have found pretty much -the- perfect house at a great price...but...I believe (though can't confirm for certain) the house being sold belonged to a guy convicted of a...quite horrible crime 😕

On the one hand I'm trying to rationalise that actually if the guy is dead and that's why they are selling, then he's dead and he isn't going to benefit from this but also just have a very uneasy moral feeling about buying a house someone who commited that kind of crime as lived in. 😬 (Crime didn't occur at property, he was convicted and moved there after his sentence)

Open the windows, redecorate and let in new energy. The lower price will make a real difference to your lives.

Ask yourself how would you feel if you heard that someone else was ready to make an offer on the house?

I understand why it gives the creeps, but we have no idea how many people have died tragically and what horrible crimes have been committed in the hosues we live in.

I couldn’t, I’d worry it may hold bad energy or be haunted and I feel I’d constantly be thinking about what had happened there but that’s me. I think you need to go and see it and see how you feel about it, if you’re comfortable, it’s an amazing saving and a great opportunity.

Wouldn't bother me. I know, for example, that the previous owner died in the room I sleep in every night. Not suicide, but, you know, death happens to us all.

Unless every child nearby lives in a brand new house, it's unlikely they'll get teased about it - and if they do, they can say - people die in houses all the time. No one has any idea what went on before they lived there.

If you have faith, you could get a holy person in to give it a blessing/cleansing.

But then the family will have been impacted by his crimes presumably very negatively and very unfairly.

Yes I would.

If it’s been on the market that long, you could go in with an even lower offer and see what they say.

Use the extra money to really make it your own. Paint it top to bottom, new carpet, new front door. Just really make it yours and maybe try and change the look of the property a bit.

I doubt when your children are old enough to understand, people will still be talking about it.