Would you live in a "Murder House"?

In My Humble Opinion
41

When my wife and I were house-hunting a couple years ago, we found what seemed to be the perfect house. The house was in a nice area and had a very nice view. We made an offer which was accepted, and entered into escrow.

When we got the disclosure statement a week later, we found out the brother of the owner had committed suicide (slashed his wrists?) in a bedroom some 15 years ago. He was described as emotionally disturbed from his wife having left him, and had been hearing voices.

At first, I thought it was no big deal. Then my wife said she wouldn’t want to be home alone in the house. And I started to worry about how my kids would feel later…so we chickened out and cancelled the deal.

I didn’t get any bad vibes or anything, but as I told my wife, I wouldn’t have watched any spooky movies in the house if we had bought it.

By the way, in Hawaii you are apparently required to disclose any violent deaths in the house you are selling. In other houses we looked at, we also had disclosed to us some natural deaths.

42

As others have said, as long as it wasn’t a problem with the neighborhood (e.g. next to a crack den), I’d have no issues–of course, I didn’t even think of hidden body parts till I read Mangetout’s post (icky!) And I’m assuming the house is all cleaned up (a chalk outline still on the living room floor would not be a selling point).

Personally, I don’t believe houses have energy or retained negativity or anything. I’d be more concerned with leaky basements and termites.

Of course, if the murder were well-known in the neighborhood you could really do some outrageous stuff on Halloween to freak out trick-or-treaters!

43

No, I wouldn’t buy the house because I believe said house would have evil spirits still hanging out in it.

Plus I have vowed never to buy someone else’s house again. I’d rather build my own problems than buy somebody else’s.

44

Alto, that is immensely disturbing. I’m not sure why.

I couldn’t live there either. Ugh.

bytheway, I believe that “full disclosure” requires the seller of any house to disclose any and all information on that house, including deaths/crimes/murders that took place there. If the seller doesn’t, and the buyer finds out, it can void the entire contract. Even if the house is just supposedly haunted–things go bump in the night–this must also be disclosed. (Of course, full disclosure doesn’t just apply to grisly incidents; it also includes foundation repair and mundane things like that.)

I would probably buy a Murder House, if I liked it, but it would probably be on a case-by-case basis. If someone had gone slowly crazy and slaughtered their whole family, I’d probably pass on the house…but if someone got into a shouting match with their spouse and shot him/her, that would be different. The age of the house would probably be a variable, too; new construction is just not as potentially creepy as an older home.

This makes no sense, I am well aware.

A friend of mine rented an older home in a historical district, and was so creeped out by the house that she hated being left alone in it, and couldn’t go to sleep upstairs if she was by herself. Apparently several spinster sisters had lived out their lives in the house, and died, one by one, of natural causes…and then when the last sister died, the house was sold and rented out.

My friend won’t discuss, to this day, precisely what creeped her out–she said she’d think about it too much if she talked about it, particularly in the house, because she said somebody “might be listening”–but she was ecstatic to leave the house and says she’ll never buy anything but a brand new home now.

45

For me, it would depend on who got murdered, and how.

If it was a house used by a serial killer who had abducted, sexually assaulted, then ritually cannibalized children, then no, I wouldn’t want to live there.

If, on the other hand, it was just a house where a bunch of upper-class frat boys had accidently killed a “pledge” during a drunken hazing, I might consider living there.

46

I’m with Q.N. Jones.

It’d add interest to the house. A bit of history, especially a nice grusome one is a huge bonus!

I’d be evil to my “sensitive” friends though… “right where you’re standing is where he stabbed her to death - repeatedly… hacking away at her still twitching body… Mwhahahahahaaaaaa!”
:smiley:

Mind you, I do that anyway. heh!
Don’t some of these Murder Houses actually increase in value because of what happened there?
I’m sure I read something about The Tate/Polanski
House on Cielo Drive being sold for more because of the Manson Family killing, or am I getting myself confused?

47

I did buy a house that the people went through a nasty divorce, they took everything out of the house before the left too. I ended up leaving my wife a year later.

48

Did you give her the “It’s not you, hunny… it’s this house” line?

49

One murder OK I’ll live there.

One person kills entire family and the postman because the cat told him to do it

Probably not.

One person kills his whole family and this has happend to each owner of the house.

No way.

50

If it was one person and there wern’t any blood and guts left behind I probably would if the house was a steal.

I knew a kid who accidently shot himself in the head and blew his brains out in the house. There were brain fragments on the wall, the floor, even the paddle fan. The family repainted the walls but the blood kept showing through. Finally they wallpapered. The same thing with the carpet. They ketp cleaning the carpet but the body fluid stains kept coming through so they had to replace the carpet.

51

I can tell you from personal experience it is a bit of a pain in the neck.

The neighbors keep asking why they haven’t seen Ms. D around lately, I’m having a heck of a time keeping the dog from digging in the crawlspace, and that air freshener by the case really starts to add up.

52

The dishes are really starting to pile up as well.

Sex is pretty much the same…

53

I’m not aware if I’ve ever lived in a “murder house” but it wouldn’t have bothered me if I had. I think I’d like to know in advance though and not have the neighbours dropping hints, or one day seeing a photo of my home in the newpaper with a “10 year Anniversary of Brutal Slayings: Murderer Still at Large”-esque article.

Although there was that heritage home I lived in with a dirt cellar. I always wondered what I would have found had I done a little digging.

54

There’s a “murder house” around the corner from me. It’s been for sale since the murder, perhaps a year ago.

Seems there’s a definite stigma.

55

There’s a “murder house” around the corner from me. It’s been for sale since the murder, perhaps a year ago.

Seems there’s a definite stigma.

56

I’ve been there. I didn’t stay overnight, but I did take the tour. Very creepy. My friend and I even had a creepy experience in the attic - we were in a room looking around, and at the same time we both got chills. Then the door started closing on its own. Freaked us out completely.

I think I’d like to spend the night there, but if it came down to it, it wouldn’t surprise me if I chickened out.

Here are some pictures of the house:

http://www.geocities.com/sheriw1965/Lizzietrip.html

57

When my boyfriend and I were looking for a house in March, we looked at a murder house. A few months before, a manic-depressive teenager had killed his mom. He was institutionalized, and the house was for sale.

The house wasn’t really what we were looking for, and the whole murder aspect proved to be too much for me. I was rather surprised; I never thought myself superstitious or anything like that. But the thought of living somewhere where a human had lost their life in such a violent manner overwhelmed me. I don’t know if it’s negative energy, or an inexplicable case of the willies. I just knew it wasn’t happening.

58

Not quite a “murder house” scenario, but creepy all the same.

Jay Sebring, who was himself a murder victim in the Tate-LaBianca case, lived in the house where Jean Harlow’s husband, Paul Bern, committed suicide. (Cite: here.

The house itself, 10050 Cielo Drive, was torn down sometime in the 1990s and rebuilt. It’s said to be heavily guarded, though, so tours and stuff are probably discouraged. Even before the house was torn down, there wasn’t a lot of visibility from the street.

Robin

59

The house I hgrew up in hadn’t had any murders atached to it, but a few eerie deaths and a lot of bad luck.

Many, many weird things happened in that house.

I wouldn’t buy a murder house because I believe that the same way some places are “holy” others have a residual evil.

Hokey, I know.

60

Agree with Shodan – why worry? There’s no telling what happened anywhere. For all I know, the very spot where I sit right this moment – even as I type - is the site of some terrible violent crime… from 700 years ago. How would I know?

When you live in old apartments in New York and Chicago, for instance, how can you ever know what really happened there?

Gwendee makes a good point about dealing with the goofiness of the community, though.

Anyway, if living in a murder house is good enough for Ned Flanders and his family, it’s good enough for me!

Shrinking Violet – you may not be able to “feel” it, but I happen to know – that is I can “feel” – that you currently work in a spot that was previously the workspace of a puppy killer who never put the cap back on the toothpaste tube. autz, same deal, except in this case I “feel” that the a piece of pavement you walk over every single day was the site of several violent crimes, all eerily alike!

oceans_11 – I would never sit or sleep in anything absorbent that had ever had major blood, or vomit, or cat pee soaking into it. But I got almost all of my furniture from heavy-trash day, thrift, and antique stores so there’s no telling what it might have been though… For all I know, my favorite vintage pumps once belonged to a floozy who killed her man.