A year after I bought my home, the former owners were visiting in the neighborhood and stopped by to say hello. I invited them in and we chatted briefly, no big deal. About five years later I did some major renovations and remodeling, I think it’d be neat to show them if they ever stopped by again, but they haven’t.
On the other hand, some former neighbors used to come by if they were in town and once they asked me to ask the current occupant of their old house if they could look around. As in, they used to live next door, now a new person lived there and the old ones wanted to see it but were afraid to ask and figured it’d go over better if somehow I vouched for them. Which put me in the awkward position of walking up to my current neighbor’s door going “See that family over there? They used to live here and wanted to see inside what changes have been made but were too chicken to ask you themselves and sent me to do it, but don’t feel obligated to me because I don’t actually care or anything, I’m just the messenger.” New neighbor declined politely.
My parents sold a house they’d lived in for nearly forty years, and the new owner immediately began remodeling it, adding a second story, etc. A few years later, Mom was visiting one of the old neighbors and stood outside on the sidewalk looking at the house for a moment and the new neighbor rushed out to tell her that it wasn’t her house anymore and she had no right to be standing there looking at it and to move along. That was rather bizarre, most folks aren’t frightened or intimidated by little old ladies to the point where they come outside to yell at them for standing on public sidewalks, but there ya go.
I voted yes. This happened to us a few years ago and I let them in.
The children of the former owners dropped by one afternoon, and while visiting with their our neighbors, asked if they could tour the house as a “memory-lane” thing. I said sure and didn’t even accompany them (the hugging/etc with our neighbors was plenty of vetting).
Our house is a little unique, in that it’s ~40 years old and has only had two owners. The property itself has only had 4 owners since the original land-grant just after the civil war. We’ve lived in this house for over 20 years, and are still the “new family”.
Yeah. Frankly, just coming to the Netherlands as a German at that time seems… a bad idea. [Can you hear the understated tone?] My great-grandmother had Germans quartered in her home in The Hague while her husband was in prison, and they weren’t exactly welcome any time after the war. Or, you know, ever.
What the hell was that guy thinking?!*
My parents had a lady ring the doorbell who used to clean for the people who lived there before, and another time I think a daughter who had moved to Canada or something. They’re welcome to come and look around and have a cup of tea, why not? A home comes to take a special place in your heart, it’s nice to see it again.
*Nb: Germans, you guys are very welcome to visit us now, and we like you very much. The fifties were just not the time to go asking for tours of the houses you used to occupy, is all. Water under the bridge, come and visit and I’ll buy you stroopwafels. <3
This isn’t a direct answer to the question, but a related experience.
Several years ago, I happened to be in a co-worker’s office when he mentioned he was going to someone’s home later that day. The purpose of the visit was to talk to the owner about a public-service project she was a part of that our company was also helping out on.
By the sheerest chance, he had her address written down and visible on his desk. It was the address of the home I lived in from age 6 1/2 to 12 1/2! Although I wasn’t involved in this project, I immediately said “I’m going to this meeting with you!”
I explained myself upon our arrival, and the woman was very gracious, conducting me on a complete tour of my former home. The best part for me was going upstairs. I lived there at a time when it was just my mom and me, before she married my stepdad and we moved into his place. The house was a Cape Cod with the entire upper floor being just one large room, and I had it all to myself.
The knotty pine paneling, hardwood floor and built-in shelves were still there, so much was still quite recognizable, even 35 years on.
Several years after that, I happened to drive by the house and saw a For Sale sign in the yard. It occurred to me to look on the realtor’s website, and sure enough there was a page devoted to the house, complete with detailed photographs of every room. So I downloaded those and now have a permanent record of my childhood home.
I understand the sensitivities involved in this thread’s question, but I know what a thrill it was for me seeing the place where I spent an important and happy time in my life.
The house in which I grew up in West Texas I doubt I would ever visit, assuming I’d ever set foot in Texas again, which is highly doubtful. My family were the original owners, had it built, but after my father died, a “friend” of the family basically tricked or pressured – I was never privy to the full story – my mother into selling it, and he rents it out now. I’d feel awkward showing up there.
My grandmother’s house in Arkansas would be more interesting. She had two. One was the one in which my mother was born at the height of the Depression. But in about 1970, my grandmother sold that to the nearby high school, and the last I heard it became a changing building for sports teams. That high school has since been demoted to junior- or middle-school status after a new high school was built, and I don’t know if that building even exists anymore. Would be interesting to see it again. The one my grandmother bought was sold after she died, and that one would be interesting to see again too. I checked out the neighborhood once on Google Maps or something similar and saw lots more trees than when my grandmother moved there. It’d been a new development at that time and pretty bare.
Maybe. Best I can say is, it all depends. If they’re really polite and nice, and their story makes sense, and they promise they just want to look really quickly, and the tour is limited to the living room and maybe the kitchen, and if they don’t seem threatening.
(After all, if they were serious bad guys, they’d display a gun right off, and take control from the get-go.)
I have always wanted to go back and visit my grandmother’s old house. But I don’t have any valid reason to, and I’m also a big, ugly, scary-looking guy, so, really, it just wouldn’t be a good idea.
OK, I asked my gf how she would react to a previous resident of our house showing up, wanting to look around. Without a second thought she said she’d call the cops.
She and her ex built this house. He is not welcome here, is off the deed, etc. I’ve never met him and he lives far away. So ain’t gonna happen.
I voted for option 4 as the “it depends” option. The couple we recently bought our current house from were very nice people and even if they turned up unannounced, we would let them in without a second thought. But then, we have already had several interactions with them (more than in a typical house purchase) so we know them. If someone we had never seen before turned up unannounced, I’d be a lot more cautious. But I probably would let them in if they seemed genuine (particularly if they were elderly or a family group). Of course, armed robbery/burglary is extremely rare in the UK, and I have never heard of this being used as a modus operandi for such.
On the other hand, I would definitely prefer a note put through the door to ask permission first, in either case.
If the prior occupants look"respectable", OK. If they appear zonked on Thorazine, probably not.
Mrs. J. awhile back gave a partial tour to a woman who was part of the first family to live in our house. She gave us a couple exterior photos from when they moved into the place, which was cool.
I lived in an apartment complex from age 14 to 16. When I was in my mid 20s I was invited to a party in the same apartment complex. I must have been enjoying myself at the party for at least an hour, visiting the kitchen, the bathroom, etc. before I realized I was in the exact same unit I had lived in ten years earlier.
The new residents had done some minimal interior remodeling - just enough to delay the immediate triggering of my recollection of the space.
I dropped by my childhood home many years ago and the gentleman who had recently bought it welcomed me in and let me look around. It was 2 apartments when I lived upstairs there and the house was converted back to one home after we left, so he was interested to hear where things were before. A few weeks ago I was in that neighbourhood again and saw a man puttering around so I knocked and he said “You were here before! Come in, come in, I’m in the middle of renovating and want to pick your brain again.” We had an extremely pleasant visit and I learned some things I didn’t know - like there was a secret back staircase and the house was built in 1912, so it’s over 100 years old now.
It was wonderful to see the home being kept up and to hear how much he loves it, just like I did when I was a kid.
Another time I was walking my dog downtown and passed the doorway to my first apartment. A girl was going in and I said “Please don’t think I’m weird, but what apartment do you live in?” She asked why and I said “I lived in 3B a few years ago.” She said “That’s MY apartment! Come on up!” I told her that one time I tore the carpet out to expose the wood floors. I painted the floor black (it was wrecked anyway) and painted gold stars on the floor. She said “That was YOU?” Turned out that the apartments had been renovated and she herself tore out the new carpet and wondered who had painted gold stars on the floor.
I purchased my 65 year old home from a coworker. I have wondered about the other families that lived here in the 1950’s and 1960’s. What the neighborhood was like then. It would be interesting to meet people that grew up in my house.
One of the bedrooms in my house was badly painted. The molding around the closet had several long paint drips. One drip was at least two feet long. I always have assumed some teenage kid painted his bedroom. Probably the first time he ever used a paint brush. I had to strip off the paint to bare wood and repaint.
For starters, I would never let the prior owners of my house back in for any reason. Their son is a drug dealer and they are… well, if I’m feeling generous, I just say “stupid.” (When we moved in, everyone from the neighborhood came up and said “We’re so glad those yahoos are gone. Have you changed your locks yet?” before they even introduced themselves.)
The very first set of owners I would actually like to meet, since they planted a whole lot of interesting things that I don’t know the names of. I’ve heard enough nice things from neighbors who knew them that I’d have no concerns.
If it was an older house, or with more unknown previous tenants… I’d be hesitant about letting unknown people inside, but could probably be persuaded after a conversation.
Ummm, is that on your bucket list or something?