Would a suicide put you off buying?

[Gilesmummy]

We went to view a house yesterday, gorgeous property in the country.. the agent has known the vendor for many years, in fact he sold it to them.
I asked him loads of questions and asked is there anything else we need to know, he replied that “no nothing “ he said he was obliged to tell me if there was..
When we got home I was doing research on the property and found out that one of the owners had committed suicide within the house..
Apart from feeling sad that this had happened here I’m in two minds whether to go ahead and buy..
It made me go cold to think that had happened but I’ve got two ongoing questions... if I came to resell, would you it put you off buying the house? And If so would you pay less for it.. statistics say that suicides can reduce a resale price by up to 40%..

It’s a totally unique house so it’s not like I can go elsewhere and purchase an identical property...
All opinions appreciated
GM

It would massively put me off.

Nah. Murder would, not suicide.

That said, if you’re thinking about it this much now, you’ll probably dwell on it when you’ve bought it - so save yourselves the nightmares and avoid.

cookie yes that does change things.
Op - have you spent some good time thinking about how to cleanse (only time I would use what I think of as quite a pointless niche rip off) the room in partic.
I would definitely replaster and Lay new floorboards I’d probably also change light fitting etc. If you can afford this. I actually think it would just take a real redo to deal with any lingering worries. Shame to lose it for this reason only.

P.s. I hesitated about posting this but actually I think it is important - generally it’s better to avoid ‘committed suicide’ as it implies crime and worsens the stigma that stops people talking about having suicidal thought. ‘Died by suicide’ is recommended. Hope you don’t mind me adding this.

Knowing that someone will very probably have died in a house is a bit different from knowing someone killed themself, though, isn't it?

It wouldn't bother me.

So, interestingly I saw a TV program once about a man who had died by suicide in his house, after suffering with suicidal thoughts. After investigation the boiler was leaking something toxic, which was causing him to have those thoughts and eventually take his own life. Really sad.

But on a serious note, as a small child we lived in a house where the previous occupant drank himself to death in the matter bedroom after his wife left him. My parents reported on several occasions of someone sitting on their bed in the dead of night, and waking up with the feeling of someone breathing on their face. We're convinced it was the old bloke who hadn't realised he'd moved on.

We moved from there quite quickly, my parents always say it was because of the lack of central heating but I suspect the ghostly man might have been another reason!

No I wouldn't care. It doesn't impact the house or how you live in it.

Noisy arsehole neighbours on the other hand - that is harder to Google search in advance sadly.

There was a poster not long ago asking this question, and generally all the replies said ‘no, wouldn’t bother me’.
I feel like the occupant of this house passed away in the house, the last house I lived in was previously in laws home, and that’s where DH grandfather passed away.
Never gave it a second thought, even though I appreciate suicide might feel different.

It wouldn’t put me off, but of course I’d feel sad.
My SIL auntie lived in a house someone committed suicide, it was a beautiful house and they made it home.

Hope you manage to make a decision

Should read: Occupant of the house we live in at the moment*

Its funny, no one ever wonders "did the previous owners live in misery, depression, squalor, illness, abuse" etc, in case that stuff somehow psychically seaped into the walls.

The woman who owned my house died in the bedroom (not by suicide) on Christmas Day. I was reliably informed of this by my next door neighbour the day I moved in. Apparently she was a lovely woman, who loved her house and garden, but her husband and family were too traumatised to carry on living there, so they moved elsewhere and put the house up for sale. We did get the house relatively cheaply to be honest, but didn't have to negotiate the price down.

Before moving to the UK, where I lived most homes weren’t yet 100 years old so the odds of a death inside were fairly slim. However, with so many older homes here the likelihood of deaths, be it natural or suicide, would be very high.

It wouldn’t bother me. A recent burger, maybe. Really old murder, probably not. (Though never some horror house like Fred west’s house)

I’m Hindu - lol we have moving in ceremonies designed for just this type of situation so it wouldn’t bother me unless there seemed to be a number of unexplained suicides in the area.

@Riojasmoothy it may not be listed at 40% below market value but it hasn’t sold yet...

We found out there had been a suicide in a house we lived in once after we had moved in. We lived very happily there for 10 years - I'm not sure if we would have felt differently about the house if we'd have know before we completed the purchase. If you got a good feeling when you looked around I wouldn't worry - I definitely think you can detect a good or bad feeling with houses.

We now live in a 200 year old property so I expect that's seen a few deaths too!

Why would you want a price reduction? Sounds like you’re clutching at straws here. If you can’t afford the asking price then go in lower by all means but a suicide wouldnt = reduction in my book

My brother bought a house knowing the previous owner had committed suicide. He got it for a reduced price, hence the reason he could afford it. He sold it a couple of years later when the stigma had worn off. I hated staying there, gave me the creeps wondering where it had happened (I purposely didn’t ask).

30+ years later, I doubt anyone would be aware of the history now.

So, no I wouldn’t buy if it was the current owner that committed suicide.

It would put me off, but I realise that that's illogical to feel that way.

Death by natural causes wouldn’t put me off. That’s almost inevitable unless it’s a new build.

Yes it would put me off.
As a child I always had a feeling that in my bedroom the floor was going to be cut from underneath me (like in Tom and Jerry). 2 years after moving out as an older teen I was told that a man had hung himself there 20 years previously, through the trap door that was in the floor!
Maybe it depends on how the person committed suicide. Though I think the house would have a funny feeling.

It would put me off.

I went to primary school with someone who was teased horribly because someone had previously died by suicide in her bedroom. The boys used to tell all manner of gruesome stories about how (they imagined) it had happened, about the house being haunted, they were really cruel. The family moved house in the end, the girl was so upset by it all and couldn't settle.
That was quite a high profile death in our community though, there was lots of unpleasant gossip about it.

It would bother me less as an adult on my own though if I had no particular connection.

I think I'd rather live somewhere a person had been murdered than where someone had committed suicide.

Can I ask please, how did you find that out op?

Wouldn't put me off at all. If I liked the house I would 100% still go ahead and buy it.