Would you live at a murder scene to bag a house price discount?

Former_MSE_Debs · 20 August 2013 at 3:18PM

Poll started 20 Aug 2013

There's a house on sale in North London at a reported £100,000 discount to other similar properties because a serial killer committed his murders there. We wanted to test your attitudes to prior property history.

In which of the following circumstances would you NEVER buy even at a big discount (click all that apply)?

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To see the results from last time, click this.

NatFeerick · 21 August 2013 at 5:09PM

At the right price, none of the options are a real issue. Who cares who died there - get a priest in; high crime in the area - its a trend so do up the house & rent it then sell when conditions improve; even the subsidence - if you can buy at tear-down value, you can rebuild. Just about anything is fixable.

BobbinAlong · 21 August 2013 at 7:17PM

Judging by the results to date most people would only avoid the ones that are a high insurance risk!

londonlydia · 22 August 2013 at 10:28AM

Not sure I could live at the location of a serial killer's murders, you would never think there was a 'nice' feel about the place! And you'd end up sitting on your sofa watching telly and suddenly visualise a brutal killing in that same spot. Especially if you were watching a horror film, you'd never be able to sleep again!

All the structural ones I'm less bothered about. At a significant discount, if you have the cash, there is usually solutions. Has anyone seen 'Help my house is falling down!'. In some ways, you'd feel safer knowing that you've got a fixed problem rather than not knowing and something happens down the line...

katyboo123 · 22 August 2013 at 11:33AM

I have scary images of our puppy digging up remains...

No thank you to the serial killer / murder house. All others are fine, even if someone died there of natural causes

campfire08 · 22 August 2013 at 2:19PM

I used to walk past a serial killers house in Seattle, some would cross the road to pass by. These places usually have to be demolished, Jeeze imagine a creaking floorboard in the middle of the night.
Then again might be a good way to make a buck. Put a plaque outside, install rattling chains and a few skeletons, tape a few moans and screams. Where is this house I think I want to buy it...

runaroundpauper · 23 August 2013 at 7:21AM

Our current house ,the couple that 1st purchased the house back in the day both died in the house at different times of natural causes we know they still think they live here knocks at the door no one there figures at the window quiet whispering ,they where good honest people it doesn't bother us and we have been here 12 years but it has forced previous owners to sell quickly once they realised it not quite what they where looking for

Beetlemama · 23 August 2013 at 8:39AM

I wouldn't buy anything I couldn't immediately move in to and live in, so no to subsidence and raging damp and flooding. No to the high crime too because I don't want to live worrying that I will be robbed. The rest I could suck it up for.

Gettingtherequickly · 23 August 2013 at 8:52AM

Having had to go to a property where someone had been murdered, the place had yet to be cleared out, although forensics had cleaned up their bit, the only thing that concerned me was going into the room where the victim had been found and imagining their fear, especially as it transpired they need not have died. Other than that, it is only walls, it is what you make of it afterwards that counts.

chunkychocky · 23 August 2013 at 9:00AM

Where I lived as a teenager there was a murderer who BBQd his wife and then buried her under the patio. That house was left empty for a few years and had graffiti painted on it and windows smashed on a regular basis. Eventually the neighbours in the other half of the semi-detached house bought it and knocked through. They got it for something like £10k when it should have been more like £100k. Once they bought it people stopped damaging it. It was not the sort of neighbourhood that generally suffered from vandalism.

quidsy · 23 August 2013 at 9:11AM

I had this situation 10 years ago, someone owned a house where his tenant, her grown son & the dog were murdered by a mental ex bf.

After the police had done with it he wanted to sell so I asked to view as we were looking and he was selling for a low price for the area (plumstead)

it might have been different if it was done up but it still had the blood stains & large chunks of carpet removed where the killer had dragged the bodies upstairs & as soon as we walked it, it just had a "nasty" vibe. I tried to loo beyond butI just couldn't, the idea of sleeping in the same bedroom where he killed the mum was too much to think about.

Iit eventually did sell after being done up but I am not sure if the EA ever told the buyers about the history or if they knew already.

Would you live at a murder scene to bag a house price discount?

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