Would you buy a "haunted" house?

[chemgirl]

I have a house crush. I totally fell in love with an old condo. Great space, loads of character, fabulous location, reasonable asking price. The catch? It's allegedly haunted. I don't mean haunted by the victim of a tragic romance, I'm talking about thousands of people suffering and ultimately dying in this place.

This condo is in an old mansion that was used as an isolation hospital for epidemics back at the turn of the century. It was the official quarantine hospital for the 1918 flu pandemic. This is a major city with high population density (even back then) so I have no illusions about what took place there.

The developers made every effort to preserve the original structure. Units have multiple wood burning fireplaces, original floors, plaster walls. This isn't like Danvers hospital where the facad was preserved, but the condos are new. Hospital staff would have scrubbed blood etc off of these floors.

I'm a scientist. I don't believe in ghosts. At least that's what I tell myself. I do get "weird feelings" about places, people etc. Not exactly ghost stuff, more like an echo of things past. Probably all in my head.

I used to work at a psychiatric hospital. The building was 60's and looked a lot like the hospital in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. My office was on a ward with low risk patients. I was fine on my unit. Other parts of the hospital not so much. The hospital was built on the grounds of a much older hospital that had mostly been demolished. All that was left was the main building, some of the basement, and a tunel system that was used to shuttle patients from building to building. This was all designed back when lobotomies were a thing. That place was freaking scary. Just this feeling of anxiety mixed with dispair. The odd time I had to use a tunnel (mostly storage while I was there, no more patient transfers) the walls were closing in. It was just so oppressive. That space was allegly "haunted" as well. More like a Shining effect.

So that was a long ramble, but would you sell your perfectly nice and not haunted house in favor of something with a bit more "history"?

 

[missy]

No way no how no no no. Not even if I was paid to live there. No thanks.

I'm a scientific person as well but it doesn't matter. There are some things we just cannot explain and this is left in the realm of not worth the chance. And don't forget about the bad karma associated with the place.

Plus we have seen plenty of "true life" haunted movies not to fool around with this. Good luck with your decision but just in case you are on the fence I say step away slowly and move on.

 

[momhappy]

Nope.
I wouldn't even buy a house where something sketchy went down - for example, there was a gruesome double murder in a gorgeous house not far from our current home. The house has been remodeled, but I could never feel entirely comfortable (especially when alone) in a place where horrible things have happened.

 

[missy]

Nope.
I wouldn't even buy a house where something sketchy went down - for example, there was a gruesome double murder in a gorgeous house not far from our current home. The house has been remodeled, but I could never feel entirely comfortable (especially when alone) in a place where horrible things have happened.

mom happy, that would be near the top of my No Thanks list. Remember the true life story of the murder in Amityville...something very similar to what you are describing. That is definitely haunted in my book. Wise decision not to move there. Terrifying.

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/11/14/the-amityville-horror-house-forty-years-later/20993896/

 

[aviastar]

Entirely depends on the type of haunting, or presence. I've lived in a haunted apartment but the vibes were good- we were protected in that home. There's a home for sale in my town now that has a civil war soldier haunting it, but he saved a woman from falling down the stairs, his intentions aren't bad. So sure to one of those.

I'd have to tour the building and the specific unit you were interested in to feel out the vibes of the place. But I do truly believe that while there are things we don't understand about energy and life and memories, nothing can hurt you unless you are open to the presence. So even in my happily haunted apartment, no seances, no ouiji boards, no nothing. Live and let...well, not live it worked for us.

 

[dk168]

I too would avoid it.

There are times when I just do not feel comfortable about a place, and it usually turns out to have some kind of unrest in the past.

DK

 

[chemgirl]

Thanks for the input! We are planning to do a walkthrough tomorrow night to see what type of vibe it's giving off. Knowing us i think we will chicken out and stay put for now. Too bad because it is a gorgeous place. We do really want to get into that neighborhood and this property is priced fairly low. The bargain hunter in me is having a hard time walking away.

I totally forgot about Amityville! I wonder how the new owners are making out! It really is a beautiful house if you ignore the whole murder thing.

Speaking of murder, I did more digging into the condo and apparently one of the old owners murdered her family. Not in the condo, but yeah. She was convicted of murdering her husband and son pre WWII and then moved into the condo under a fake name after she was released from prison.

This keeps getting better and better!

 

[momhappy]

Nope.
I wouldn't even buy a house where something sketchy went down - for example, there was a gruesome double murder in a gorgeous house not far from our current home. The house has been remodeled, but I could never feel entirely comfortable (especially when alone) in a place where horrible things have happened.

mom happy, that would be near the top of my No Thanks list. Remember the true life story of the murder in Amityville...something very similar to what you are describing. That is definitely haunted in my book. Wise decision not to move there. Terrifying.

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/11/14/the-amityville-horror-house-forty-years-later/20993896/

Yes, I remember Amityville too. Creepy.

For me, it wouldn't even depend on the vibe in the home, the type of haunting, etc. Even a positive presence (if such thing exists) would be too creepy in my book. I just could never feel comfortable alone because well, I'd never be alone….

 

[Karl_K]

The house I grew up in is haunted so I would not always say no.
But a place like you describe NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!

 

[MarionC]

Never. Ever.

 

[lulu]

Reading your post it's pretty clear that you have a sensitivity to the issue so I'd say no.

 

[packrat]

Amityville far as I know was a hoax. Not that it didn't scare the bejesus out of me as a little girl hiding behind the chair in my uncle's basement where I'd snuck in to watch it..and gave myself nightmares for 20 odd years. I don't think anyone else who has ever lived in the house has had a problem. The Lutz's had money issues if I remember correctly that magically resolved themselves after their "story" came out.

I don't believe in that kind of stuff...buuuut I've had a few things happen to me in a house that they say is haunted so I tend to be a little more guarded now I guess.

My brother lived in an apt building where there was a double murder, and I dated a friend of his who lived in the apt next to his where it happened, slept there many nights and never was scared.

We have a Mental Health Institute here in town, one of the last remaining in Iowa. It's beautiful up there...buuuut a lot of the buildings are in bad states of disrepair and it has that feeling of..oppression? Like something is holding you down? It's a sad and scary feeling. There's tunnels up there too, and they run all the way into town in secret locations. Bad things happened up there decades ago and it seems that it seeps into the bricks of the buildings themselves. I know the buildings aren't living..but the people who were housed in them at one time, were. It feels like the structures soak up the essence of the people who were in them.

But who knows? I have a crazy intense imagination that drives my husband up the wall and makes him worry about what goes on in my head. Maybe you'll do a walk thru and feel sunshine and warmth and it will be a great thing!

 

[stracci2000]

I would have no interest in a property where bad things happened.
There was a Chinese take-out restaurant that DH and I liked to go to a few times a week near our home.
We became friendly with the sweet girl who rang up the orders. There was a robbery and she was shot and killed behind the counter.
That place is now a Thai take-out restaurant. We went in once. Never again. I just couldn't stand being in there where such a tragedy took place. They supposedly had a Buddhist ceremony to cleanse the place, but it didn't change my feelings about being there.
I still get sad just driving by.

 

[lyra]

I'm going to say no also. I'd be interested to know how you feel about the place after spending some time viewing it. I'm a skeptic in general, but the way you've described it sounds unsettling. It may be hard to sell and that's something I'd factor into the "bargain" of it all. Good luck!!

 

[Dioptase]

It's allegedly haunted.

Who ya gonna call?

 

[azstonie]

No no Nanette! Science doesn't endorse ghosts but it does endorse energy, positive and negative. If that isn't enough, think of how much trouble and time it may take for resale.

 

[azstonie]

The house I grew up in is haunted so I would not always say no.
But a place like you describe NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!

Karl, did you feel it was benevolent?

 

[siv1]

Nope. Just reading about the place sent chills up my back.

I'm one who believes in spirits.....good and bad. Some times when I'm at my mother's house, I get a whiff of my father's pipe tobacco. He died in 1998, and she doesn't allow smoking in her house at all. No one else ever smells it.

 

[chemgirl]

Amityville far as I know was a hoax. Not that it didn't scare the bejesus out of me as a little girl hiding behind the chair in my uncle's basement where I'd snuck in to watch it..and gave myself nightmares for 20 odd years. I don't think anyone else who has ever lived in the house has had a problem. The Lutz's had money issues if I remember correctly that magically resolved themselves after their "story" came out.

I don't believe in that kind of stuff...buuuut I've had a few things happen to me in a house that they say is haunted so I tend to be a little more guarded now I guess.

My brother lived in an apt building where there was a double murder, and I dated a friend of his who lived in the apt next to his where it happened, slept there many nights and never was scared.

We have a Mental Health Institute here in town, one of the last remaining in Iowa. It's beautiful up there...buuuut a lot of the buildings are in bad states of disrepair and it has that feeling of..oppression? Like something is holding you down? It's a sad and scary feeling. There's tunnels up there too, and they run all the way into town in secret locations. Bad things happened up there decades ago and it seems that it seeps into the bricks of the buildings themselves. I know the buildings aren't living..but the people who were housed in them at one time, were. It feels like the structures soak up the essence of the people who were in them.

But who knows? I have a crazy intense imagination that drives my husband up the wall and makes him worry about what goes on in my head. Maybe you'll do a walk thru and feel sunshine and warmth and it will be a great thing!

Your description of the Mental Health Institute sounds so similar to the one I used to work in! I wonder why they are always up on a hill. Many psychiatric hospitals of that era were designed on the same Kirkbride plan. The idea was nice buildings with natural light and open space would help patients recover. They usually were fairly self sufficient with farms etc. The center building was generally research labs and the wings were patient rooms. Unfortunately demand was high so the buildings became overcrowded, there was need for outbuildings and tunnels to those outbuildings (official stand was tunnels provided cover from the snow, sure...). Researchers turned their backs on behavioral psychology and focused on surgical intervention (not isolated to labotomies, some removed ovaries etc to help "hysterical" women). I know the hospital I worked in had something called "the cradle" where patients were locked in a wooden box and rocked. It was part of a display of outdated medical implements, sample jars, freaky stuff.

The tunnels lead all over the place with secret exits in town. Apparently some exits are inside unrelated buildings that would have provided services to the hospital back then. Most are sealed now, but there are stories about people sneaking in.

The strange things one learns working at the psych!

Eta: I got the job because I had seen the movie Session 9 and mentioned it while on a tour during my interview. The movie was filmed at Danvers hospital, one of the original Kirkbrides and birthplace of the lobotomy. I have a bit of a morbid fascination when it comes to this stuff.

 

[chemgirl]

I would have no interest in a property where bad things happened.
There was a Chinese take-out restaurant that DH and I liked to go to a few times a week near our home.
We became friendly with the sweet girl who rang up the orders. There was a robbery and she was shot and killed behind the counter.
That place is now a Thai take-out restaurant. We went in once. Never again. I just couldn't stand being in there where such a tragedy took place. They supposedly had a Buddhist ceremony to cleanse the place, but it didn't change my feelings about being there.
I still get sad just driving by.

That is so tragic. No wonder you don't want to go back there. Something like that would change how I see a building for sure. Maybe 100 years from now people will feel differently, but right now it's too recent. That poor girl should still be living her life.

 

[chemgirl]

Thanks for the replies! I'm reserving judgment until I've actually been in the building.

DH totally doesn't get my reservations about buying this place. He says he's never felt creeped out by a place and gave me the "you're being crazy" look.

Maybe I just have a more active imagination?

I explained to him that it would be like buying a car with an accident report on it. Maybe it was just a scratch and replaced panel, but people look at it differently and it hurts resale. He understood that one lol.

 

[chemgirl]

And it sold! Not to me.

Looks like I was worrying over nothing.

 

[HopeDream]

I would totally live there.
Unfortunately I'm immune to ghosts. Something about my natural talent with all things electric/electronic puts me on the wrong frequency to pick up on ghosts and other supernatural phenomenon. (Which kinda sucks, because I'd love to see a ghost). I go on the local historian's ghost tours in my town all the time - I love them.

As far as I'm concerned violent and tragic events have been happening all across the earth for over 200,000 years, so anywhere anyone lives has the potential to be haunted by the unquiet dead.

I'm sorry you missed out on a cool place to live.
But.....It could be back on the market again soooooooooooon.

 

[arkieb1]

I am one of those people that "senses" things so no for me unless you worked out a way to live in harmony with them. As it turns out it probably wasn't for you if it sold then the universe is telling you something else will come along.....

 

[chemgirl]

I am one of those people that "senses" things so no for me unless you worked out a way to live in harmony with them. As it turns out it probably wasn't for you if it sold then the universe is telling you something else will come along.....

I think the Universe is telling us not to move period. This is the first 2 bedroom we've seen under $500,000. Detached houses well over a million. Bidding wars are the norm here and nothing is on the market for more than a week.

The haunting made this condo affordable lol.

Our agent put out a call to the seller asking her to call if the deal falls through on financing. So there is hope. New catch though, we would have to authorize an asking price offer on the spot, sight unseen.

This unit should have been priced $100,000 higher even with it's history. My agent has no idea why the seller priced it in the $300,000's. It was on the market for less than a day.

Way more upset about this than I would have thought.

 

[momhappy]

Amityville far as I know was a hoax. Not that it didn't scare the bejesus out of me as a little girl hiding behind the chair in my uncle's basement where I'd snuck in to watch it..and gave myself nightmares for 20 odd years. I don't think anyone else who has ever lived in the house has had a problem. The Lutz's had money issues if I remember correctly that magically resolved themselves after their "story" came out.

I don't believe in that kind of stuff...buuuut I've had a few things happen to me in a house that they say is haunted so I tend to be a little more guarded now I guess.

My brother lived in an apt building where there was a double murder, and I dated a friend of his who lived in the apt next to his where it happened, slept there many nights and never was scared.

We have a Mental Health Institute here in town, one of the last remaining in Iowa. It's beautiful up there...buuuut a lot of the buildings are in bad states of disrepair and it has that feeling of..oppression? Like something is holding you down? It's a sad and scary feeling. There's tunnels up there too, and they run all the way into town in secret locations. Bad things happened up there decades ago and it seems that it seeps into the bricks of the buildings themselves. I know the buildings aren't living..but the people who were housed in them at one time, were. It feels like the structures soak up the essence of the people who were in them.

But who knows? I have a crazy intense imagination that drives my husband up the wall and makes him worry about what goes on in my head. Maybe you'll do a walk thru and feel sunshine and warmth and it will be a great thing!

Amityville is not a hoax - the real story (not the movie) took place in a house in Long Island in the mid 70's. I believe the eldest son murdered the whole family of 6.

 

[chemgirl]

Amityville far as I know was a hoax. Not that it didn't scare the bejesus out of me as a little girl hiding behind the chair in my uncle's basement where I'd snuck in to watch it..and gave myself nightmares for 20 odd years. I don't think anyone else who has ever lived in the house has had a problem. The Lutz's had money issues if I remember correctly that magically resolved themselves after their "story" came out.

I don't believe in that kind of stuff...buuuut I've had a few things happen to me in a house that they say is haunted so I tend to be a little more guarded now I guess.

My brother lived in an apt building where there was a double murder, and I dated a friend of his who lived in the apt next to his where it happened, slept there many nights and never was scared.

We have a Mental Health Institute here in town, one of the last remaining in Iowa. It's beautiful up there...buuuut a lot of the buildings are in bad states of disrepair and it has that feeling of..oppression? Like something is holding you down? It's a sad and scary feeling. There's tunnels up there too, and they run all the way into town in secret locations. Bad things happened up there decades ago and it seems that it seeps into the bricks of the buildings themselves. I know the buildings aren't living..but the people who were housed in them at one time, were. It feels like the structures soak up the essence of the people who were in them.

But who knows? I have a crazy intense imagination that drives my husband up the wall and makes him worry about what goes on in my head. Maybe you'll do a walk thru and feel sunshine and warmth and it will be a great thing!

Amityville is not a hoax - the real story (not the movie) took place in a house in Long Island in the mid 70's. I believe the eldest son murdered the whole family of 6.

The murders really happened. The movie is based on a couple who moved in shortly after the murders. They reported all sorts of crazy happenings in real life. That's the part that may have been a hoax.

Was reading about the story last night and apparently the house has been occupied since without incident. People who live in the town seem to think it's just a normal house.

Hoax or not, it would be unsettling living there after everything that took place.

 

[packrat]

Amityville far as I know was a hoax. Not that it didn't scare the bejesus out of me as a little girl hiding behind the chair in my uncle's basement where I'd snuck in to watch it..and gave myself nightmares for 20 odd years. I don't think anyone else who has ever lived in the house has had a problem. The Lutz's had money issues if I remember correctly that magically resolved themselves after their "story" came out.

I don't believe in that kind of stuff...buuuut I've had a few things happen to me in a house that they say is haunted so I tend to be a little more guarded now I guess.

My brother lived in an apt building where there was a double murder, and I dated a friend of his who lived in the apt next to his where it happened, slept there many nights and never was scared.

We have a Mental Health Institute here in town, one of the last remaining in Iowa. It's beautiful up there...buuuut a lot of the buildings are in bad states of disrepair and it has that feeling of..oppression? Like something is holding you down? It's a sad and scary feeling. There's tunnels up there too, and they run all the way into town in secret locations. Bad things happened up there decades ago and it seems that it seeps into the bricks of the buildings themselves. I know the buildings aren't living..but the people who were housed in them at one time, were. It feels like the structures soak up the essence of the people who were in them.

But who knows? I have a crazy intense imagination that drives my husband up the wall and makes him worry about what goes on in my head. Maybe you'll do a walk thru and feel sunshine and warmth and it will be a great thing!

Amityville is not a hoax - the real story (not the movie) took place in a house in Long Island in the mid 70's. I believe the eldest son murdered the whole family of 6.

The murders really happened. The movie is based on a couple who moved in shortly after the murders. They reported all sorts of crazy happenings in real life. That's the part that may have been a hoax.

Was reading about the story last night and apparently the house has been occupied since without incident. People who live in the town seem to think it's just a normal house.

Hoax or not, it would be unsettling living there after everything that took place.

The Lutz family's story is what I was talking about. Not the DeFeo murders. The eldest boy shot and killed his family in the middle of the night-that's true. But the Lutz family then bought the house and came out w/their story that there was a secret room in the house and it was possessed. That's what the movie was about. The DeFeo murders did happen. The Lutz parents bought the DeFeo house and then claimed to have problems and they only lived there for like 70 some days or something. No one else has ever had a problem. Some of the people involved came out many many years later and said they hadn't been telling the truth and embellished to help the Lutz's.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

No. It's the whole "mind clean" issues. Also, you may have problems selling down the road. I ALWAYS think of resale.

 

[telephone89]

I would buy a house where a murder happened (even a large one), but I think buying a hopsital like that would be a bit too much for me! Although, they died of 'natural' causes, which I think is less creepy than a murder. SO I dunno. If you LOVE the house and the character, its history shouldn't be that important.