question for old house owners...

[Texas_Ranger]

Normal death: no not at all, on the contrary, I'd absolutely expect that to have happened in any house. In fact my grandmother passed away in this very apartment three years ago. One neighbour passed away in the house in 1990 and at least one other in 1980, several years before I was born. Even in today's world with medical attention all over and people being rushed to hospital at the slightest hint of illness people do go to bed and don't wake up the next day. In my opinion that's the perfect way of passing after a long and fulfilled life.

Violent deaths on the other hand would scare me a bit I think. Probably not all that much though - I once worked in a house where the Jewish owner committed suicide in 1938 and never had any trouble or bad feelings.

[JRC]

My current house has a tragic recent past. A family of 4 lived there: mother, father, a little boy and a little girl.

One day, the little boy was out riding his bike. He darted into the street, about a half block away, and was struck and killed.

The father used the settlement/insurance money to make many of the "upgrades" to the house. (sliding doors in the DR to a new deck, vinyl siding, vinyl windows, etc.) He did this work because he grew up in the house, and had no plans of moving. But, his little girl was too traumatized by staying. So, they put the house on the market, (that's when I bought it) and built a new house in a different neighborhood.

Generally, this doesn't bother me, except when I stumble upon evidence of the little boy. For example, there are 2 sets of children's handprints in the newer concrete driveway. And, there are lines indicating a child's height in the closet of the little boy's former room. I'm not freaked out by these things, but they do make me sad.

If you're wondering how I know so much about what happened, the PO father stopped by to visit a couple days after I started moving in, and told me the whole story.

[Verve]

That's a complicated question for me. Let’s see, we know of three people that passed away in our home and were waked here which doesn't bother me. They all lived a happy life here and passed away peacefully. Now, there is a story that we have recently been told that at first bothered me but I have since realized that this house is a peaceful place and any ill fate that came to anyone in its past was caused by something not related to this home. But if a murder suicide had happened very recently and I had been aware of it I think it may have affected my decision to buy the house. For some reason something 100 years in the past has less effect on me.

The story we've recently been told is that the architect that built our home "went crazy" and tried to burn the house down and committed suicide. The attic has evidence of a fire but we've yet to find anything that confirms this story completely...aside from having an attic window mysteriously open on two occasions. But that’s a different post

[Lynners]

Generally, this doesn't bother me, except when I stumble upon evidence of the little boy.

The family that lived in in our house before us had two children - the father died of lung cancer a few months before they moved. They left behind some of his medical devices (like those things that measure your lung capacity/volume/whatever).

The most heartbreaking thing, though, was written on the bulletin board in the little girls room. "I miss Daddy".

The same daughter also found it appropriate to write her first and last name on every single wall in the house, with pen.

[Kansas. 1911.]

Don't we all say, "They will have to carry me out, feet first." I, for one, would love to die at home, specifically, this home, after living to a ripe old age (and, incidentally, being able to do stairs the entire while).

The most recent death in this house occurred in 1970. I know of one funeral in the parlor in around 1938. In fact, the house is perfectly set up for caskets because the front double doors open wide with no center post, like it was planned this way. I take special note of this because I grew up in a church with double doors, but they were made with a center post. Thus, no funerals were ever held in the church until an addition was built and the sanctuary was moved. You better believe they fixed the "no funerals" part.

[oldhouseluvr]

The guy who built our house died here in the house in the early 1900s. That's as it should be IMO. He was laid out in the dining room. I suspect that other POs also may have died here in the house, but it doesn't bother me a bit. Now suicide and murder for some reason trouble me a bit more and could influence my decision as to whether or not to buy a home. If I had info like that up front about a house, I suspect that I would walk away.

[downtowndahlgren]

I have always asked RE agents whether someone was murdered or committed suicide in a house I was considering purchasing. I once rented a top-floor apartment where the previous tenant (also another young woman) had committed suicide, which I only found out after I moved in, and that place always had a very negative vibe. Lesson learned!

[Don M]

We looked at a "Murder-Suicide" house last year in South Carolina. Realtors don't usually want to pass this type of information on for obvious reasons. We didn't buy the house as they wanted more than we were willing to pay & the house is still on the market.

[selvatico]

2 people have died in my house; a 5 year old girl and her mother, about 50 years later. The little girl is still here.

But it's OK... when I go, I'm gonna haunt this place too.

[kat]

if u did u could make up a haunting story like the amityville horror people did and make a fortune !