You need a middle choice of “it depends.” The woman who had lived in our house showed up with some guy, she gave her name and asked if they could look around. Since I knew the name matched up, I said OK. I also knew her history: her husband had carbon-monoxided himself in the garage, and her looking around the house two decades later was some sort of catharsis. Everything was different (in many ways, we had straightened out a right-angle stairway, etc.) so I think it helped her lay that ghost to rest.
Yeah but the problem is that they don’t ask for your permission to visit.
I wonder if the old guy who we bought our house from ever thinks about coming by to pick up the homemade sex tapes he left in the attic.
I’ve been on both sides of this. I’ve looked through not really the house I grew up in, which I remember quite well, but the house I lived in until age 6 which I hardly recalled apart from some mental images enhanced by some old photos.
We also let into our current house a husband and daughter who went to my son’s school (she boarded he did not so they weren’t from the immediate area and my son didn’t know her). He’d lived here with his mother and grandmother during WWII when his father was overseas. They sent us some nice pictures of what the insides had looked like and we used one to restore some woodwork in the living room. We also let in the grand daughter of the previous owner to that one who told us there’d been a safe hidden in the wall of what was the master bedroom. This year when water damage forced us to repair around the chimney we found the spot where the safe had been. It originally had been a small alcove for storing wood for a wood-burning stove we think.
On the other hand, we had a young woman from Holland stay with us back in the 60s. She said when she was a teen in the late 50s a nice looking German gentleman had knocked on the door and asked if he could look around as he’d been quartered there during the war. She said she slammed the door in his face even before calling to her parents upstairs.
I haven’t had the pleasure of having anyone ask. I wouldn’t have a problem with giving a former occupant a tour, but I’m not a tidy person, so a bit of advanced notice would be nice.
I would treasure an opportunity to visit the house I grew up in, especially to show my wife. Every time I visit Oregon I drive past, but can’t bring myself to ask inside.
Yes. They’re probably lying, but I’d let them in. Sounds like an excellent way to become victim of a home invasion.
About 20 years ago a man in his mid 30’s I am guessing knocked on my door and explained he grew up here and asked if he could walk through the house and the property. He explained he had gone through recovery from drugs and alcohol and he just felt it was something he needed to do. I thought about it for a while but did let him in. We ended up spending a few hours together, I had a huge garden set up as city gardens go about 50x100. He explained how his mother had a similar garden. It worked out ok.
The lady who lives in the house I grew up in let’s me walk around in there from time to time. Mom is a nice lady.
One time a lady showed up wanting to look around the house I had when married. She lived there before the people we bought from. She kind of bitched about what had changed because they put a lot of money into it but that was after I explained what a mess it was when we bought it. I know through mutual friends who owned it them and the information matched up. And I was pretty sure I could take her in a fight so I wasn’t worried.
The old drunk who used to own my sister’s house showed up and she had to call the police. But he didn’t want to look around. He didn’t realize he didn’t live there anymore.
I didn’t vote because it depends on the circumstance.
Really? I think I’ve seen it maybe one or two times at the most.
Honestly, I have no desire whatsoever to see inside a place where I used to live, except maybe out of some idle curiosity which I usually don’t have time for. Nothing you see when you do this is going to be what you remember, so what’s the point? It’s a perverse exercise in looking at missing things.
Do they have a pizza?
Ha, there’s a story on the radio right now, and there’s a guy who knocked on a stranger’s door to research a woman who used to live there 50ish years ago.
And if they have pizza, I’ll pretty much let anybody in. So now you know how to rob me.
Interesting post sequence.
:eek:
I couldn’t answer this poll precisely because my answer would be “depends on a whole bunch of different criteria,” as others have pointed out.
I’ve never been on either side of the situation, but I imagine if someone friendly stopped by, and shared memories of my house (built in 1958 so I’m sure it has history) and I didn’t get any skeevy vibe from them, I’d invite them in.
The people who lived here before us were very nice, and I’d be happy to let them in. Except for one son who the SWAT team came for one day. Beyond that the people would be so old I don’t think I’d have to worry about them.
Dead people can let themselves into your house. Recent thread discussing.
Not a house, but one day in my freshman year of college, at about one in the morning, some guy randomly came up to my dorm room and said he lived there last year and wanted to look around.
The next year, I continued the tradition.
Can I vote, “It would depend”?
Case A: A polite, frail elderly couple explains that they used to live here. They go into great detail about why the place was special to them (the children they raised here, the day the husband returned from the war with his duffle bag, the pies she used to bake “right over there”, etc.) ������
Case B: A large, semi-coherent, possibly stoned man babbles out stories involving ghosts and revenge, ending with, “Can I come in?” ������
I went to my hometown for the holidays last year, and ate at a restaurant owned by Chinese immigrants whose delivery truck had years before been parked in the driveway of the house I grew up in. I asked the owner if that was their house. She was hesitant at first (the language barrier didn’t help). I tried to be specific, without being creepy: “The house at 123 Elm Street. I used to live there. My parents built it in 1969. My mother lived there until she died in 2000. We sold it to XYZ Realtors”. She eventually warmed up, and we had a nice exchange. I’m glad I spoke up.
My biggest problem with letting strangers into my house now would be the fact that it’s a pigsty.
So if you look a certain way, you can get away with anything. Got it.
No, I’m messing around. I mean, we all do this to a certain extent. A few weeks ago I left my keys at work, and just as I got home luckily (oh, such luck!) a guy showing apartments just so happened to be standing around and let me in. Halfway up the stairs I asked, “How do you know I’m not some shady criminal?” and his response was that I looked nice. What I heard was that I’ve missed my calling as a con-artist. I’m starting to seem really crime-obsessed in this thread.
That’s a bizarre argument that makes no sense. The choice isn’t between letting in someone you know versus someone you don’t know. It’s between letting in someone you don’t know versus not letting in anyone. (Hint: you’re in far more danger from some random person than from no one at all)
I’ve done it twice.
Once was a childhood home (although only for 3 years) No one answered the door and there were no cars in the driveway. I took a couple of pictures and left.
Second was an apartment that I’d lived in about ten years ago. My friend that I was visiting had done some major remodeling in that apartment. We were let in and took a quick look around.