• lemillionsocks@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Just started house hunting and I really feel this question.

    I feel like intellectually I can say that the housing stock in my area is older(for the US anyway) and as a result theres a strong chance somebody died in the house I buy. This whole country is built on native american land which was depopulated with either violence or disease, and gun violence is a plague in this country. Even in nicer “low crime” areas you have murders and shootings and you just have to live with it. Ive bought food at places where someone was shot in the head due to some personal grudge.

    If it was a good enough deal in a good enough neighborhood and the ghost story was keeping buyers away then I’m a lucky duck and after a few years the murder will be forgotten and when I inevitably move I’ll sell it for a good profit when(and if) I need to move.

    Of course thats my brain. My gut says I dunno. I dont really believe in ghosts, and even if I did I wouldn’t be bothered by like someone dying in their sleep or of old age etc. Still a murder suicide is dark. You know in the dead of the night when it’s still and everybody else is asleep or if I’m alone my mind can get superstitious and uneasy. Likewise it’s weird to live in a place where you can know exactly where something that horrible happened. To have my growing children playing with toys or running around on ground that someone was legit murdered in recently.

    So I could be boisterous and say I’d jump on the deal, but I dunno. I might be able to push myself to go through with it(and regret it some nights) or I might decide I dont want a home with that kind of baggage.

    • Wahots@pawb.socialOP
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      1 year ago

      On the other hand, I feel like the victims would probably be happy to see a family or happy person living there. I’d put up some pride stuff, have a bitchin’ garden, and have friends over for BBQs and movie nights. Also would make for some good ghost stories around a campfire in the backyard :3

    • Parsnip8904@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      I get you. I don’t believe in ghosts either but I worry about copycats or if the house has some unknown security or structure flaw that led to the crimes being easy to commit. What if the windows are joined in a crappy way that makes it easy to take them apart if you have the right tool?

  • TimTheEnchanter@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I would want to know how famous the murder/suicide was, which sounds super weird. But I wouldn’t want true crime junkies driving by my house to gawk at it if it was scene of a case that got a lot of publicity. Like the Amityville horror house, or something like that. But otherwise I don’t think it would bother me.

    • jarfil@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      What if you could put a toll booth, and charge for organized tours? Work from home at its finest. But you might have to undo some of the cleaning and repairing, make it more like a theme park… then again, charge double on Halloween. Hm, would have to work out the math.

  • marshadow@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Absolutely! I don’t believe in ghosts, I like getting good deals, and I’m not afraid of being known as that person who lives in a haunted house. My only concern would be if it had been truly deep-cleaned, because I would be unhappy to find traces of blood or whatever a few years down the road.

  • Wahots@pawb.socialOP
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    1 year ago

    There was an article in the NYT about what happens to places where murders have happened, and as someone looking to buy a home someday, I realized I wouldn’t mind. Especially if it was well below market value.

    • Seathru@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Shoot, I’d buy one with the chalk outline still in the kitchen if the price is right.

  • AJ Young@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but here in California you don’t have to report if someone died in your house after a certain period of time. The only exception, I’m told by my realtor, is if the deceased were a minor.

    As long as it doesn’t affect my ability to resell, doesn’t bother me at all.

    • Wahots@pawb.socialOP
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      1 year ago

      Just gotta hire a professional cleaning team and a pastor to come to the house first xD

  • wildeaboutoskar@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Honestly the house market is so bad here I’d hardly give it a second thought. I would kill to have a place of my own (not literally, just thought it needed mentioning given the context).

  • SenorBolsa@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Yes. Assuming there wasn’t a deeper issue within the community that caused it.

    I live just down the street from a cliff a teenager committed suicide on. Might sound cold but I don’t really think about except on occasion I notice someone he knew left a cup of his regular starbucks order on the rock in front of it with his name painted there, It’s usually an interesting reflection on life when I do.

  • JillyB@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Easy yes. If anything, that would be a cool story to tell people. I currently live in an apartment complex which used to be the grounds for the states death row and electric chair. It’s an icebreaker.