Would You Buy A House Someone Recently Deceased In?

I have been looking to buy a new home for some time now and finally found a home I was going to make an offer on. After talking to the listing agent I found out it was part of an estate sale, so the previous owners are no longer living. The current owners (their kids) will not confirm or deny if the parents passed away in the home recently.

Local laws don't require them to disclose this but it really creeped me out. I'm very superstitious so I did not make an offer despite it being a really lovely home. Would it bother you not knowing or am I just being weird? What other weird things would you want to know about a home before buying it?

It's a house. It's bricks and mortar and wood and plaster and slate and glass. Stop being so silly and buy then darn thing if it's so nice. More than likely they didn't die in the house anyway and you're just doing yourself out of a nice home.

I went to view an apartment to rent, it was real nice. As I was walking around, clearly looking pleased the estate agent said

'look, I have to tell you or I wont feel right, and if you decide to go for it, you'll only find out anyways..... but the reason why this place is available is because the previous occupant was brutally murdered in this apartment. But not to worry, everything has been repainted and floors replaced. Does this new put you off?'

**I started walking back towards the entrance door of the apartment **

'oh no, not at all' .... but in reality I couldn't get out of there fast enough!

.... turns out, I found the news article online. estranged couple, Husband called over and stabbed her dozens of times to death - frenzied attack

I probably wouldn't mind unless it was like a murder or something and the killer wasn't caught.

I'd totally buy such a house, as I'm not superstitious. I've heard some places offer discounts on homes that are haunted because they're difficult to sell.

It would depend on the circumstances of the death I'd say. If the death was of natural causes, I wouldn't imagine it would bother me. Good luck on your decision, duder!

Are you alluding to the supernatural? If so, you shouldn’t worry. Ghosts, superstitions, etc., do not exist. However, I would definitely want to know how the person(s) died before purchasing.

Sure I would.

My situation: I'am temporarily living in the home of my deceased grandparents while I recover from a back injury. It's no big deal. It's actually in better shape than my previous house lol. One of them did die here, so we ripped all the walls and carpets out and rebuilt the entire interior. Maybe i'am heartless or cold or something, but living in the house where my grandfather died does not faze me. There is no way to tell anything ever happened in this house.

And here's something sorta related because i'll probably never get to talk about it ever: A family friend rented out there house a few years back when they went on vacation (for 2 years, basically a trip around the world) and something went down and one of the rooms had been bathed in blood. The tenants had gone missing a few weeks prior and no one knew where they were, or if they were alive. We spent a few days together cleaning the walls and replacing the carpet in that one room and you would never know what had happened in that room. Actually, nobody does lol. Total mystery.

It's just a house. If it weird's you out, It weird's you out.

Well, don't buy a house that you are not comfortable with. We all have different deal breakers and preferences.

I live in a house where the previous owner hung himself in the guest bathroom's skylight. I'm pretty okay for the most part but I wish that the voices in my head saying "cut my life into pieces" would go away.

Definitely - unless it was because of an issue with the house.

I am currently living in a house (hopefully not much longer) that was my grandmother's before she passed away in 2014. While she did not pass away in the house, her last boyfriend (she was divorced) died of a heart attack on the toilet in the larger bathroom. We replaced the toilet but that was more of an upgrade thing. Nothing spooky or weird has ever happened, unless you count the lack of wire-based internet and spiders.

That's pretty much what my realtor told me. I don't want to be stuck in a home I would be unhappy in.

Previous owner died in my house. I bought it 6 years after he passed. I plan on dying in it too.

As long as the death wasn't caused by foul play, sure. Got no problem with it.

If you don't feel comfortable about it, then you probably made the right decision not living there.

Personally I wouldn't mind if it was of natural causes, but if someone was murdered there or some real bad stuff went down I might reconsider.

I would be fine with it as long as the deaths weren't somehow due to some unsafe hazard in the house. Even then, if it's something that got fixed by them before sale and my inspector gives me the ok then I may be willing to go along with it.

I ain't 'fraid of no ghosts

@puchiko: Depends on how the person died.

I mean if the house was somehow at fault (carbon monoxide issues, bad wiring causing a fire, poor security allowed a stranger to come in and murder the occupants, previous occupants were drug dealers with enemies etc), I probably wouldn't. If death left a super bad mess I probably wouldn't. If I had a significant other who got spooked by such things I probably wouldn't

But otherwise it wouldn't be an issue for me. I mean death happens. Chances are these folks, given their age, either died in their sleep or passed away at a hospital/hospice nearby.

If it squicks you out, and it sounds like it does, Go and don't look back man. No shame in it, a lot of people are bothered by this stuff on a primal level for good reason. Houses are a lot of money and you will spend a lot of time there, you need to be 100% ok with where you are going to live.

As long as the death was not due to the neighborhood or house itself being dangerous I would not care. Natural and circumstantial (suicide, murder, accidental, etc.) deaths I can think of as being independent of the location, and would not really affect my decision.

People die everywhere, so I wouldn't care unless it was a neighbourhood thing, or if it was a relative/ex-partner with a grudge about property ownership following the death.

As long as the house wasn't a contributing factor to the death I wouldn't worry about it. If it makes you feel any better maybe think about the fact that the people didn't just die there - they lived there too and that probably has more positive energy/vibe/whatever in total than their passing away.

The thing that might make me pause would be a house where a murder or domestic abuse situation happened. Personally I couldn't look at a staircase where someone was pushed down or a wall that someone was shoved against. However, that's not a superstitious thing. Just don't want bad thoughts or reminders everyday.

I would make it sound like it bothered me to hopefully get a better price, but I really couldn't give 2 shits

@facelessvixen: I mean, if you'd stop listening to Papa Roach, that wouldn't be a problem.

Do you guys get crosses on the side of the road where people totally wrecked?

Yeah I wouldn't worry about it for superstitious reasons. There are other things to worry about, especially if you are considering buying.

Unless it was the house that killed them,(Like the roof caving in on them) I don't see why not.

That's not just you. I don't live in a suicide house at all and all I wish is for Papa Roach to go away too

My last apartment was ~500 years old. There's no way someone didn't die in there at some point. Possibly several. Did not care. (Former downtown, early renaissance, stone building in a district going under heavy renovation, if anyone is curious.)

Humanity has been around for a long, violent time. I imagine there are few areas of the planet that haven't been witness to someone being killed at one point or another.

It wouldn't bother me, I would assume that most homes that aren't new builds probably had someone die in them at some point.

Ugh questions like this stress me out. Buy the damn house and quit being a ninny.

Buy it, up the spookiness factor by 25-50% (put in creakier floorboards, disturbing paintings, etc), make up some story about a horrible death, charge weirdos several hundred dollars a night to stay in a haunted B&B, use the profits to buy a non-haunted house

No such thing as ghosts. It's all good. My friend lived in a house where a guy murdered his family by the pool. It was weird at first until you realize it's not that weird and makes no difference to anything.

I doubt they died in the house. Probably in the hospital.

Yeah. Ghosts don't exist, and for those that think otherwise, you can put on house tours at $25 a pop. GHOST PROFITS.

I would think about it, if I'm buying and not renting. It does make the place a bit unsettling, and people will talk about it and give you a bad feeling. But honestly, knowing someone died in it is a lot less worse than having known sightings in it. People sure have died everywhere, but sightings might mean that it's gonna vibrate your eyes or whatever.

Here's a plus though: neighbours are less likely to bother you!

Yes.

I moved into an apartment a few weeks after the previous tenant aced themselves. It was known in the building as the "Suicide Suite".

We drank the six pack that was left over and wished them well in their next life. Only had 1 or 2 spooky nights over a few years, but, to be fair, one of those nights was spooky as shit.

ghosts cant mortgage

I have no problem with this. I mean as long as it wasn't like some messy murder that wasn't cleaned up fully and completely before selling but that part is pretty obvious and I imagine unlikely. That or some sort of unsolved murder where you expect the killer will be back... but once again that is a very unlikely exception.

HOWEVER I am saying this as a former funeral home employee who spent a few years sleeping nights in a house a good chunk of nights a week with many dead bodies in the basement, while also going down there in the dark and middle of the night to perform cremations....or to go put more down there and whatnot if people died middle of the night... So I am likely to be less effected.

Well, I sold an apartment in which someone died recently. Pretty sure the new owners are still fine and all the ghosts have been behaving themselves.

Only if it's 100% confirmed to be haunted. Monetize that shit!

Where are all the dinosaur ghosts? What about all the cow ghosts? They should be everywhere.

I discovered that having a house that someone died in is not hunky dory with some peoples culture, as it turned out. It was a question that came up after my father passed, and then heard more about the basis of it. I'm not exactly judging, but it struck me as odd. But hey, maybe based on a faint remembrance of plague or something like.

Yes. Unless it really stinks.

Nah. If the owners died a looooong time ago maybe. But if its recent I tend to avoid it.

If you're talking about ghosts, then that doesn't bother me (I don't believe in ghosts; that's malarkey). It depends on how they died; if they died from old age, or cancer or something, then yeah, I'd buy it if it was a nice house. If someone was recently murdered in there, then no, I'd probably not get it.