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

sweetme · 23 August 2013 at 11:07AM

I did. The last house I lived in was previously occupied by a notorious couple. Well known for their very passionate arguments. After one argument she, literally, battered him to death with a baseball bat, left him upstairs in the bedroom and went downstairs and carried on drinking with her mates. It was two/three days later that it was discovered he was dead. She did time but as far as I am aware she is out now. It didn't really phase me as such but when I stripped my boys room for decorating there was a lot of doodles/drawings of his on the walls, signed with his name. The only thing that did freak me a little was the dead dog I dug up when planting a tree. That's a smell I'll never forget.

Seems I'm following a pattern with properties, the one I am in now, the previous occupant commuted suicide by jumping in front of a train.

The guy in the first house has a book in print. Stories about poaching I think, I'll try find if there is a link for it.

Widelats · 23 August 2013 at 9:45PM

Yes, i was considering buying a house in Japan in the zone where they had the big incident, i believe it was a nuclear accident.

Mongrel · 25 August 2013 at 12:28AM

If the only issues with the house were past events or physical issues that I can correct in time, then if the house is affordable/cheap AND in an area I want to live in it's a bargain. If it needs me to spend a year or three doing it up as/when I can afford to it's still a bargain, but then I understand that I have the luxury of being able to stay with family rent free.

An area of high crime would deter me. I live in one of those areas now, I'd like to think if I buy a house I'll be improving my circumstances not swapping one iffy area for another. Having been broken into and frequently having to navigate the streets when aggressive and problematic people are trying to throw their weight around it's not an environment I want to buy a home in. I understand they fluctuate, but given that my area has been high crime for the 25 years I've lived here I'm not willing to take that particular gamble.

TORTURED · 26 August 2013 at 8:29AM

I think the whole 'serial killer', 'murders', 'drug den' and 'known criminal' are all silly reasons not to buy a house.

First of all, if it has been a drug den or known criminals have lived there - it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference. When you move in, it will be a new house. Anyone that had ties to that house before will consciously and subconsciously see this as a new household, too - so it doesn't change your likelihood of people coming and asking for drugs or anything like that.

Also, if someone died there or whatever - that was a thing of the past, and it doesn't make you more likely to get murdered yourself or anything like that. If you think 'it has a nasty vibe' etc, that's purely psychological - you may feel this, but I would be able to live in the same house and never feel that negativity. But I still get what you meant by this.

The thought of someone having been murdered there would give me more motivation to live on and succeed in life, to do even more good and to spread even more love.

Rotor · 26 August 2013 at 10:03AM

Most pre-war houses will have had someone die in them ( not 'murdered' I'll grant you) becasue , before the NHS , most people died at home

Nicky101 · 26 August 2013 at 4:51PM

i dont know
i think it would creep me out
not wishing to be disrespectful
it would be too sad

MrSmartprice · 26 August 2013 at 5:32PM

Houses affected by subsidence or in flood risk areas would be a no-no at any price. But homes of criminals, or murder scenes wouldn't bother me at all, especially if there was a discount on offer.

What would the problem be? They are bricks and mortar, ghosts do not exist and houses are not 'haunted'. It is all just a load of superstitious nonsense perpetrated for the simple-minded.

Many years ago a house near my parents was the scene of a murder, a chap beat his wife to death with some sort of club. A crucial bit of evidence was the indentation of the club in the polystyrene tiles on the ceiling. (Remember them!) It wasn't a widely reported case as he pleaded guilty. The house was sold a year or so later and a new family moved in, as far as anyone knew none the wiser.

worried_jim · 26 August 2013 at 5:42PM

Here you go-Murderers house for sale right now-

Haybarn Close, Littlethorpe, LE19 - £119,950

http://www.taylorbourne.co.uk/haybarn-close-littlethorpe-le19/07,0,0,0,2038042,53330,00.htm

This is the house that Colin Pitchfork lived in when he killed two girls in Leicestershire in the 1980's. Pitchfork raped and murdered two girls, the first in Narborough, Leicestershire, in November 1983, and the second in Enderby, also in Leicestershire, in July 1986.Colin was the first murderer in the world to be convicted using D.N.A. eveidence which was pionered at Leicester University.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Pitchfork

DKLS · 31 August 2013 at 4:20PM

If the house fitted my needs I wouldnt hesitate to buy, I did buy a house where the previous owner hung himself in, I got that for a very good price due to that fact.

gloriouslyhappy · 10 September 2013 at 4:00PM

Turns out my lovely new house was previously occupied by 'ladies of the night' - for the first six months, I had drive-bys of Mercedes, BMWs and the like, with men in sharp suits slowing down and peering in. Luckily, I'd got it under market price so had funds to modernise the house, and they eventually realised the skip outside, piles of building materiels and children running around meant the house was now a home, so the procession of cars stopped.

Now I know why it cost below market rate! But, as a result of my buying it, the neighbours came over with cakes to say hello and tell me how glad they were to see me and my children and my dog, and now I have new friends. So those 'ladies' did me a favour!

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

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