The “Water Cooler Chat” will be a new feature on CLAYCORD.com. We will ask you a question or provide a topic, and you will talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
QUESTION: Would you purchase (and live in) a home where somebody committed suicide or was murdered?
Talk about it….
34 comments
I don’t see why not. Many probably already do and just don’t know it.
Nope
Sure, why not? I don’t know the history of my home, except that an elderly person lived there before me, and for all I know he or she could have committed suicide or was murdered.
I have a friend in San Francisco who bought an old Victorian house in the 70’s and there is a story about a young woman in the 1920’s that was murdered by her boyfriend. I spent the night there once and I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a young woman in a white nightgown standing in front of the window stretching her arms and yawning, then she disappeared. Was I dreaming, or did I really see it? I believe I was wide awake and really saw it.
I later found out from a neighbor that the young woman was murdered while she was standing in front of that same window.
Dawg, Perhaps under the influence of some mind altering drugs, ha, ha. It was San Francisco and the seventies after all.
Hanne, My friend bought the house in the 70’s, the night I stayed over was in the late 80’s, by that time my rowdy life had mellowed out.
Depends what a horrible history means. Does it mean if someone died, or does it mean there were a horrible crime and several people were murdered.
I would not have a problem with buying a house/condo where someone died. However, if I was told 1 person died, 1 or more died under mysterious circumstances, and there were robberies as well, I most likely would not, seems like the property is jinxed.
I am now.
No! I am very superstitious. It would give me nightmares.
Haunted houses don’t scare me. They’re motar, stone, and wood.
No, I wouldn’t. In most states murder and suicide has to be disclosed when the property is sold. In California, any death has to be disclosed within the last three years.
In California, that is one of the rules that is generally ignored.
My house document states that it cannot be sold to people of color. One would think they would update it by now.
@ Simonpure~
The same with document(s) for our house too. we were really surprised when we found out about it years ago. Our neighborhood is one big melting pot now,… 🙂
I live in a house that had 3 owners. The first husband died – wife remarried and moved away. The second husband died – wife remarried and moved away. Third husband died – I’m still there. (Husbands did not die in the house) I figure that I should like my home with a divorce attorney. That way the wife would get everything.
Nailed it! So true.
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In California, home sellers are required to disclose to potential buyers if anyone died in the residence if within the last 36 months? The seller must also disclose any known death in the home if the buyer asks.
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This law is frequently ignored, they don’t want to scare off superstitious potential buyers.
Its all foolishness, none of us is going to get out of this alive…if the house suited me and family, I see no problem.
I would, wife wouldn’t, so, no.
For those who would buy a house where someone was murdered. What if there hasn’t been an arrest, and they come back to the house? You never know who the murderers are, or why they murdered someone at that house. There’s a reason “stigmatized properties” sell for a lot less. No one has mentioned they’d buy the house for less. You’d buy it anyway.
I ain’t afraid of no ghost!
Seriously? Something or someone probably died everywhere humans and animals exist or existed. So, you probably already do
It isn’t the dead that are scary, it’s the living.
Amen to that.
When I was a little kid I lived in a farmhouse built in the early 1700s. You know people had to have died there. If you live in an old city you have centuries of history and centuries of deaths and other horrors. So it wouldn’t bother me to live in a house where someone had died.
On the other hand, Kentucky Derby’s point about an unsolved murder is valid – suppose a criminal had stashed something in the wall and had sheet-rocked it and painted it so no-one would know it was there. Or in the crawl-space. And suppose he gets out of prison and comes to your house to get it back.
In short: ghosts yes, criminal activity no.
You watch too much TV
Too much TV. Yep.
The older the house, the higher the odds that someone died in it at some point in history. Most of the houses in the Bay Area are 30+ years old. Ours is newer than most of what we looked at and is still approaching 60 years old. Someone probably did die in ours at one point. *shrug*
Unless you’re buying brand new construction–and that’s still no guarantee– you’re probably going to have some kind of death associated with it. Personally, aside from a drive-by or a neighbor killing the previous occupant, I wouldn’t worry about a house’s history too much.
I wouldn’t rule it out. Might have already. I don’t know. There isn’t much a good smudging and a couple of nice parties won’t fix.
How about the house the Helzer Brothers lived in across from the pavilion? Two murdered and two others “disposed of” in the house….
I was thinking about the Heltzer home also. Someone is living in that house. Hope they got it cheap.
Again, the dead isn’t the problem the living brothers were.
I’m not sure why people believe in ghosts when they are more likely to be bothered by a living creepy or annoying neighbor.
And even if ghost were real, and they are not, why don’t you pray and tell it to “go into the light” or whatever?
Get a couple of big dogs if you are worried about former residents. Install an alarm system. Studying skepticism might be more useful than worrying about the dead haunting you as a lingering poltergeist.
I had a friend who was looking for an apt. My landlord at the time liked renting to people who good tenants would vouch for. I made the mistake of telling her that unit was the nicest in the building because some guy died in there smoking in bed. Cheap, good location, and remodeled and the thing that made them not take it was “oh, someone died in there”.
And then there was the neighbor that said she saw ghost trains where an old commuter line used to be. They also were consulting a psychic while being poor. Both were nice people except for believing in nonsense that limited their lives in different ways.
It is easier to convince people of absurdities than it is to talk them out of it.
If you want to find out if a house is haunted put a hocost on the kitchen table and leave for a few hours.
What’s a hocost? I’m going to have to look that up! Also, apparently I haven’t been in Claycord long enough to know about the Helzer/Heltzer home, I’m going to have to look that one up, too!! Twenty-four years in Claycord and I’m still a newbie!!
My mom died at home
We had to disclose it in the list of amenities just like it had three bedroom and two bathrooms.
Sure, if the price is right. I wouldn’t put too much stock in a home’s history, as it will be remodeled to my liking anyways.
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