Purchase home w/violent past (trigger?)

[ocelotmom]

I'm with the "vibe" people.

 

Does the house make me uncomfortable, especially if it did so before knowledge of its past? Then I wouldn't want to live there.

 

Does it feel fine? Probably not going to bother me, and maybe I can get a good deal on it if other people are more superstitious. Though I probably wouldn't buy a notorious house that gets weird people coming to look at it or something.

 

I don't think I'd buy a house where the murder was recent-ish and unsolved, because the question of whether the killer would come back would creep me out too much.

[OnTheBrink]

I don't know. It would depend on how I felt in the house. The house I grew up in had no murders or anything, but one "wing" of it felt creepy to me and it always creeped me out to be in it, even as an adult later.

 

So, for me it would be about the "vibe" of the place, known bad history or not.

[Night Elf]

Would you consider purchasing a home that had a murder-suicide (domestic) a couple of years prior?

 

Nope, not even for the best deal possible. Nope.

[Night Elf]

The house is a great deal and what we want, but I've been thinking that I might just have to pass on this one. I don't know if I can get over those feelings I had. I haven't even told my husband about the experience because the thought is so crazy to me. I just told him I thought the house was creepy.

 

I don't think that's crazy at all. I'd suggest listening to your gut feeling! Home should feel safe, not icky.

[Paige]

We have a house with a violent past in the neighborhood we just moved to. I knew about it before we moved and thought it wouldn't bother me at all but it does. I don't know why it bothers me, I know it is irrational, but it still bothers me. I would never have considered moving to that house. Bad juju.

[Jenny in Atl]

I've never had bad feelings about a house, but I have about those living in it; an unwelcome feeling.

 

I've visited homes/places that had a violent past, and felt nothing out of sorts. I live on land that has a very sad and violent past (Cherokees murdered and uprooted from this area). Not once have I even feel scared. Not even in my old NY neighborhood graveyard (I was once dared, as a kid, to sleep in it over night).

I was much more scared of getting caught, by the nuns whose rooms overlooked the cemetery. Maybe some people are more susceptible to "evil" vibes... :confused:

 

Wait, there is one place that made/makes me uncomfortable. The old state mental hospital in Decatur GA. I think it's more the odd 70's architecture than what has dwelled within its walls. :blink:

[justamouse]

No but I'd have it blessed first and it would also depend on what the vibe of the house was.

 

Our house used to be a hospital, but it's a very happy place. I have walked into homes where it seemed the desperation leaked from the walls.

[GoVanGogh]

I actually asked The Hive something similar a few months ago.

The house next to us is a former drug house and a young man died of an overdose. (We actually live in an affluent area. :glare:)

Someone did buy the last month. They are in the process of fixing it up, which I am so excited about. However, they did not know that it was a former drug house at the time they purchased it. It has since been broken into and vandalized extensively. It is assumed the former homeowner/meth addict did the vandalism. :001_huh: Then the new homeowners found cameras installed around the entire perimeter of the home. I'm very creeped out.

But I am glad someone did buy the house and I wish them well.

[Guest Dulcimeramy]

I absolutely would not. Not in a million years. If you are a dedicated non-woo-wooer, skip this very long post. You've been warned!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a house that was built in 1910 that we lived in for two years but lost to toxic mold.

 

I loved everything about that house, but there was some bad ju-ju around it, for sure. Too many spirits.

 

I personally dealt with one non-scary child ghost and got it to move on, so I thought we would be happy there.* (see ghost story #1 at bottom of post)

 

Then, when we began to seriously remodel the upstairs, we realized it was more haunted than we knew.** (see ghost story #2 at bottom of post)

 

Then I started to get sick, and part of our demolition revealed black toxic mold throughout the house. Our insurance didn't cover remediation, so we moved.

 

I do come from a long line of witches and clairvoyants on my Dad's side, but my religion and faith come from my Mom's side of the family. I did not personally believe in ghosts at all until then.

 

I went to our preacher to ask about ghosts, spirits, and hauntings, hoping to be reassured that I was merely insane, because our denomination does not believe in the supernatural world.

 

But when I explained what was going on, he agreed with me. Zero comfort there. Asked me if I wanted him to study up on it, maybe find a priest to come pray. (This was as out-of-character as the ghosting itself, because our denomination would be the last to believe in ghosts OR call in a priest.)

 

I had dealt with the child ghost but felt that the ones living only upstairs were malevolent. I didn't want to have anything to do with them.

 

We moved away from there 10 years ago. I've never had a brush with ghosts anywhere since, and I never had before living in that house. So its not like I go around detecting spirits. I don't.

 

*Ghost Story #1: The Child

 

We bought the house in the summer, and it was over 100 degrees in the shade that week. Our oldest children were 1 and 3 years old. The house had no air-conditioning and we didn't have fans yet, so I left the boys with my Mom while I went by myself to do some necessary scrubbing and repairs before bringing the boys over. (My husband was an apprentice and didn't have time to help me with any moving-related tasks.)

 

Now, I do talk outloud to myself when I'm alone. I was doing that all through this big house (2 stories, attic, basement, wrap-around porch...) while I was cleaning and planning.

 

When I was upstairs in the smallest bedroom, washing the windows, I asked myself aloud whether the curtains from the boys' room in the old house would look nice in here. I said, "I think its narrower, though. Oh, I left the measuring tape downstairs."

 

A voice at my elbow said, "Can I measure it?"

 

I said, "No, I'll measure it." (Used to chattering with my 3yo all day long, answered without thinking. But he was at Mom's. I was alone in the house.)

 

Then the chill went down my spine. I went to sit out on the front porch swing and sip some water, thinking it over.

 

My Mom, my boys, my SIL and her kids, and my brother pulled up in the drive. They'd brought lunch, and SIL wanted to see the house.

 

I took my brother and SIL on the tour, and in the small bedroom I said, "You are not going to believe this, but when I was measuring the window I'm sure I heard a child's voice at my elbow asking to measure it."

 

SIL screamed! And ran down the stairs and out into the yard. I asked my brother what was wrong, and he said, "I'll go find her. You talk to Mom."

 

My mother had learned that the house we bought (in the small town she had lived in as a child, and I was raised in) was the home of a family she'd known. Their six-year-old son had been hit by a car while riding his bike and killed, while they lived in my house!

 

Mom found out after we'd bought the house, so she told my brother and SIL and told them not to tell me lest it bother me.

 

Well, I was aware of that little ghost but not afraid of it. It would watch me through the floor grate as I rocked my baby and played with my 3yo. I could feel it in the kitchen at the table. It began to get closer to me as I went through my daily routines, and when I began to feel its presence touching my arm I decided I'd had enough.

 

I was rocking the baby and 3yo while they slept, and began speaking to the air about the love of God and the right times for things, that heaven is safe and good, and 'go toward the light' and all that. I tried to speak the way a Mama would speak to a child about those things, and then I prayed. When I stopped praying, it was gone. It never came back. And I cried.

 

Ghost Story #2. The Clomper

 

When we moved in, only the downstairs was livable. The previous owners had abandoned some simple remodeling work, even though the building supplies were left up there for us.

 

When my husband began sawing, hammering, etc. we started hearing the next round of noises.

 

I didn't like the "feel" of the upstairs and didn't go up there unless I needed to. I assumed it would feel homey once we had it fixed up, but it felt so unchancy to me. DH felt nothing and had no problem working up there.

 

But every day he worked up there, we would hear noises at night. At first it sounded like a man walking back and forth in heavy shoes. We heard him on the steps, too.

 

After a few days, we began to hear chains in the walls. That was very upsetting to me, but DH explained it away by thinking that the semi-trucks passing on the next road over were causing something to rattle and we just hadn't noticed before.

 

The next stage, though, included hammering and sawing. All through the night, hammer, saw, clang, bang.

 

My husband did not hear it!!! He said he heard squirrels or mice or the wind, but nothing like what I was describing. I thought I was cracking up.

 

Then, an old friend from out of state was going to be in town for the wedding of a mutual friend. She asked if she and her infant son could stay overnight with us, and of course I was glad to have her.

 

We fixed up one of the rooms upstairs and just shut the door to the unfinished rooms.

 

She came down early in the morning, looking awful. She said she hadn't slept a wink, and what was that hammering and sawing sound? She just kept getting up to look in the other rooms upstairs and saw nothing, and felt silly about waking us up. She knew old houses could make strange noises, but she'd been scared to death.

 

That same week, my sister's fiance stayed three nights with us. By the middle of the second night, he was sleeping on the couch instead of upstairs. By the third day, he wouldn't even go upstairs. This young man did not believe in ghosts, but he heard the hammering and sawing.

 

Then, as I said, in DH's demolition he came across the toxic black mold. An expert verified that we had it, and that it pervaded the house. Insurance would not pay for remediation, and we didn't have the thousands of dollars needed. At the counsel of lawyers and pastors, we declared bankruptcy and the bank got the house.

 

So. Were we haunted? Or were just more ill than we realized from the toxic mold? Were those who visited and heard the noises also mildly allergic to mold? DH is the one who claims to have never heard or saw anything, and he is not allergic to mold.

 

I don't know. But I'll never live in an old house again, or a house with a tragic past.

[Plucky]

I absolutely would not. Not in a million years. If you are a dedicated non-woo-wooer, skip this very long post. You've been warned!

 

 

 

 

That does sound scary!

[Kate CA]

This may sound strange, but I would want to know the story before making a decision. The notoriety of it would also be a factor - was this a huge case? If so, no. I wouldn't want the gawkers.

[celticmom]

We lived in and owned a house for 10+ years that had had a suicide by the previous owner's teen son. We never had any problems in the house.

[michelle l]

Well...quite possibly not, depending on the situation. Though I do endevour to focus on "whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure", etc, I also think there is more going on around us that is of a spiritual nature than we probably realize. Some personal experiences have convinced me that things mentioned in scripture are more real than I previously understood them to be. I wouldn't rule it out entirely, but I would approach it cautiously.

[elegantlion]

I absolutely would not. Not in a million years. If you are a dedicated non-woo-wooer, skip this very long post. You've been warned!

 

 

 

Wow, what a story. :001_huh: I'm kind of glad ds didn't go out of town with dh this week.

[Audrey]

THe violent past wouldn't in and of itself be the deciding factor- what it really felt like in the present might be. We have cleared negative energies from homes before- in fact we do it every time we move into a home. If the home was in every other way ideal for us- sure, it might be ok. But it would be unlikely, I feel, because we might well just get a sense of "no way" immediately.

 

 

Peela, I get what you're saying, but there are some energies that no amount of clearing can eliminate. I do house clearings all the time and even for other people. I think I'm pretty good at it by now. But... There are times when a witch has got to know her limitations and walk away.

 

There used to be a farm on the cross-quarter mile from ours. Several years ago a man and his "friends" murdered the man's mother, father and brother in the house. He followed that by burning down the house and attempting to dozer the remains into the basement.

 

After a couple of years, the whole farmyard was razed and it was rented out to another farmer. The space where the house used to stand and about a 100' area around it is a dead zone. Nothing grows there. It is a bare, wicked space in the middle of the renters' fields every year. I am not, by any witch's definition, a fluffy bunny. I will tackle a lot of things with no problems, but I will not take the road that used to run by there. I would rather gouge out my eyes than set foot on that quarter. The negative energy that comes off of that place is too much for me.

 

There is no way I'll attempt to clear an unavenged murder. It doesn't seem fair and I haven't got the heart to do it.

Edited May 26, 2011 by Audrey

[milovany]

I posted this in the other thread, but will post it here also since it's kind of confusing to have two posts on the same topic (for me, I read this one and thought, "I was pretty sure I'd replied to this -- where is it?" then I realized there was another one).

--------------------------------------

We bought a house a year ago in which both elderly residents had died within minutes of each other. Their story made local news (we live in an area similar in size to yours). The gentleman had been having trouble breathing, or something like that, and so his wife called 911. When the paramedics arrived, she started having a heart attack and they tried to help her, but she died. Soon after, the husband passed away also. They had been married 50+ years, and had been well-known and active in our local community.

 

We offered on this house before we were aware of this; but I kept seeing the names of the couple in our sale papers, and they rang a bell. I finally Googled it, and then immediately recalled the story. It's not as tragic as the story you tell, but those girls also didn't die in the house like the couple from whose estate we purchased this home.

 

You move in, and live there, and life goes on and it's no big deal. Really. In our case, Dh and I want to finish raising our kids here and remain here until a much-aged state, so I think it's kind of sweet in a way -- they had done the same (had lived here 40+ years). Please don't let this stop you from purchasing a house you both like. And I love what the other person [said in the other similar thread] -- how awesome that you could be the ones to give the mom of these girls the gift of being able to move on to a less-sad place in her life. And we love the neighborhood, and hope we (with the happy noises of our kids and the productivity of our land) are helping the neighbors to move on from the sad memories associated with the house, too.

 

:grouphug:

[Dawn in OH]

No way. No how. Not ever.

 

I would be too creeped out. Yeah, I know, I'm probably too old for that reaction, but, that's the way it is.

[AuntieM]

No way. No how. Not ever.

 

What she said. Exactly.

[brehon]

I've always been sensitive to atmosphere, feelings, whatever one may call it. I think my decision would in large part be based on my feeling of the house.

 

Years ago when I was a rookie paramedic my system wanted to place a unit in a particular town. [i work for a third service county system.] At the time this town was pretty small and didn't have any suitable place available for an EMS station. Coincidentally, as the county began looking at buying land and building a station a house became available. The owner had recently died. The house was a 2 bedroom/1 bath house built in the early 1920s. The county leased the house from the city and the unit was placed there (and is still there today).

 

I was one of the original 6 medics who opened the station. When we moved in no one knew anything about the history of the house beyond when it was built. From the beginning each of us experienced different phenomena: the most common was hearing heavy foot steps outside the bedrooms in the kitchen/living room area. These foot steps were only heard between midnight and 5 a.m. Of course, at first, we each believed that that the steps belonged to our respective partners. In time we realized that the partner was sleeping (or standing at his door wondering the same thing about the footsteps). Each time one of us would peek out the bedroom door or walk into the kitchen we would almost invariably see the big recliner gently rocking back and forth. And it didn't stop. No one felt scared, exactly; but, being the pragmatic lot most of us were, it did give us pause.

 

However, the laundry/supply room was much different. The room itself was a much later addition to the house (1950s, I believe). Every time one of us walked in there (day or night) we felt "weird", "cold", "shivers down my spine", "malevolent", "evil". These are words my colleagues (and I) used to describe the feelings. We decided to search the history of the house. Turns out the house had 2 owners: the original builder/owner and the people who lived there before the station opened. [The owners were related to each other, as it turned out.] One of my SO colleagues searched the old county records (the town not being incorporated until the 1970s) and found that the original owner was thought to have murdered a "hobo" at the house's (original) back door in the late 1920s -- where the current laundry/supply room is. No charges were ever brought and the case stood as unsolved for decades until alll the involved parties died.

 

The six of us made a pact never to tell our colleagues who we were convinced would tease us unmercifully. As people came to work at the station they, too, would experience these (and other) things. The word got out. Although not everyone who worked at the station experienced "happenings", enough did that there were medics who refused to work at the station or who refused to sleep in the back bedroom as you had to go through the laundry room to get there. I haven't been stationed there for over 6 years and don't know if these things still happen or not.

 

But there were a couple of years of lots of activity that even we jaded, cynical, crispy medics couldn't easily explain.

[Kari C in SC]

My sister-in-law was murdered by her adopted teenage son in their home. At first my brother-in-law thought about moving, then he realized that it was the home she loved and made her own. The one she homeschooled her kids in and they were a family in. It did take me about a year to be able to walk into their school room, but in the end - it is just a room. Nobody really uses the room much anymore, but overall it has been fine.

[Nestof3]

Yes, I could. I don't think those things have anything to do with where I live.

[Stacia]

For myself, I don't know.

 

We do have friends who bought a house after the owner committed suicide there. The house was then vacant for a long time (& trashed/vandalized). They got a great deal, worked hard on fixing it up, & totally love being in the house. The lady who died there had the same name as the wife of the couple who bought it; her fridge magnet that said her name (_____'s Kitchen) was still there & they kept it; it's now on their fridge.

[Melora in NC]

I probably would not. The reason I would Give (to a realtor, for instance)would be that the house's history could easily affect its resale value. Honestly, though, the idea of living in a house where a violent crime had been commited would give me the willies!

[Stacia]

I'm not one who believes in much woo-woo ness but I definitely wouldn't buy one if I knew about a situation like that. I've lived in a house that had a horrifically violent past that we were not aware of when we moved in and, although it sounds weird, it had a different feel to them. I don't do ghosts or psychic stuff but there was some type of bad feeling to that house.

 

We moved a lot when I was a kid. During one of the relocations, my mom found a house that she loved -- everything she was looking for/loving in a house. But, once she was inside, she said there was such a creepy feeling there that there was no way she could live there. My parents didn't buy the house. Later, they found out that the house had a violent past.

 

Your story reminded me of that incident.

[Ibbygirl]

I absolutely would not. Not in a million years. If you are a dedicated non-woo-wooer, skip this very long post. You've been warned!

 

 

 

I am so sad and sorry that you lost your house because of the mold. How awful!! :grouphug::grouphug:

[trailofsparks]

Both my dh and I say NO. I talked to someone once, an acquaintance, who described his and his wife's experiences since they moved into their home: lights turning on or off, things moving, etc. Small things, not violent. He said it didn't bother them at all :001_huh: but it bothered me just hearing about it! I'm not sure about a house blessing, as some call it, whether it would bring peace back to the home or not.

 

Dh and I made an offer on a home and shortly after, I was awakened 2 nights in a row with urgent thoughts that we should not buy this house. On the 3rd day, I made a phone call to the PD of that city and asked about the house. The officer told me he would not live there if he had small children. We got out of the purchase, luckily. Oh, but I wanted that house!! It was a little hard to let it go, but so glad we did. Different circumstances, I know. Good luck w/your decision.

[goldberry]

I voted no. I don't believe in ghosts, but I do believe in negative/bad energy. If there was even a chance of negative/bad energy there, I wouldn't take the chance. Heaven only knows I have enough other junk to deal with!

[FrogMom5]

No, I couldn't do it. I would think about too much and be either sad or creeped out.

Denise

[OnTheBrink]

Peela, I get what you're saying, but there are some energies that no amount of clearing can eliminate. I do house clearings all the time and even for other people. I think I'm pretty good at it by now. But... There are times when a witch has got to know her limitations and walk away.

 

There used to be a farm on the cross-quarter mile from ours. Several years ago a man and his "friends" murdered the man's mother, father and brother in the house. He followed that by burning down the house and attempting to dozer the remains into the basement.

 

After a couple of years, the whole farmyard was razed and it was rented out to another farmer. The space where the house used to stand and about a 100' area around it is a dead zone. Nothing grows there. It is a bare, wicked space in the middle of the renters' fields every year. I am not, by any witch's definition, a fluffy bunny. I will tackle a lot of things with no problems, but I will not take the road that used to run by there. I would rather gouge out my eyes than set foot on that quarter. The negative energy that comes off of that place is too much for me.

 

There is no way I'll attempt to clear an unavenged murder. It doesn't seem fair and I haven't got the heart to do it.

 

Your post reminded me of a house here. When we moved here in 1999, there was a huge house, with a garage w/guest house over it, in a hoity-toity neighborhood that was up for sale. It stayed on the market for a couple of years, then one day as I drove past, I noticed all the windows and the front door boarded up. Sign still in the yard, though. Then, it was just gone. Totally razed, lot just sitting there empty. My son told me that someone told him that a man murdered his family then commit suicide in the house and that no one would buy it. I've tried to verify this story, but my son didn't know the name of the guy, or a date, so I can't seem to find anything on it. BUT. That lot is still empty to this day. No one has rebuilt on it and AFAIK, it's not been sold.

[Laura Corin]

I probably wouldn't because it could damage the resale price/ease of resale.

 

Laura

[golfcartmama]

NO, no, no. Never. In fact, I ask b/c they have to tell you by law.