I'm curious how this would affect your valuation of a home.
Would You Buy a House That Someone Committed Suicide in?
Would You Buy a House That Someone Committed Suicide in?
Comments
Homocide = hate crime?
They wanted full market value?! I'm shocked, just simply shocked! /s
In Qld we were looking at properties. One said upfront on real estate.com that there was a homicide there (12 years ago). I spied a bargain but the Mrs was having none of it.
Absolutely, and I would have the hide to use this to lowball the shit out of the property in question.
Would even ask for a discount if I had to a clean it up myself.
It's frankly not worth the risk of Logan Paul showing up and making a video at your place. Hard pass.
Worth it if Logan Paul offers to give some percent of that video revenue.
i would assume most houses have had someone die in them.
(x) doubt
Also I said suicide.
probally better issues like abestos/meth contamination in the house people don't know
Is the method of death that import? What if the death was natural but the body decomposed over months.. Suicide still worse in your books?
yeah suicide comes with more heeby jeebies
had someone die in them.
Nek minnit…
Also I said suicide.
Is suicide not a form of death?? Can you not die from suicide?
Most deaths are not suicides.
In my state it is a requirement to list that it's a suicide.
Depends on $
I would absolutely buy a house someone has committed suicide in. It would not affect my valuation of the house but could be a negotiation tactic in a low demand market. In the current market though? ummm…Good luck haha
Just get a priest and exorcise the place. No problem.
Unless it's a Chinese ghost. Don't muck around with that …
OP only mentioned suicide, no reference to haunted houses.
Unless it's a Chinese ghost. Don't muck around with that …
If it's the chinese vampires, you just need to stick that yellow slip on its forehead!
Haha yeah those ones. But they always get blown off by the wind!
RIP æž—æ£è‹±
On the land the house is situated on or in the vicinity there have probably been (since homo sapiens reached Australia)
- People dying (some natural causes, some self caused, some violent deaths.
- Some tragic abuses (of The Ring or Ju-on nature)
- Some injustices.All of which likely invoke evil spirits.
Please speak with them and learn their nuances before making an offer.
Roughly 2 billion Aboriginal people have existed in Australia over the past 50,000 years, which on your belief must mean 2 billion spirits. Anywhere you live will be jam packed with them - won't this mean you have to spend months or years talking to each before you can place that auction bid? And do the spirits that need consulting all magically speak English?
I don't like your chances of succeeding in the present market.
No, there hasn’t been.
I don't believe your 2 billion number is plausible at all - but Australia is a very big place, 7.692 million km².
Divide that by 2 billion and you still have 3846 m² per person, which is almost an acre.
Why is it not plausible? Assuming humans have inhabited Australia for at least the last 50,000 years (a pretty conservative estimate given our current knowledge) that works out to about 40,000 deaths per year to get 2 billion in total. Given that both fertility and mortality rates would have been far higher, particularly childhood mortality, it is a pretty reasonable estimate.
Others have done estimates of the total cumulative population prior to European arrival (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235711942_How_many_…). Smith estimates between 1 and 5.5 billion people depending on the input variables.
@twjr: Even just 12,000 years ago (10,000 BC) there were only a few million people living in the entire world.
@trapper: And in any given year a large percentage of that population would have died, most of them children. Up until around 100 years ago between 30% and 50% people born didn't live until adulthood. Because it's not our current lived experience we significantly underestimate how significant infant and childhood mortality was.
@twjr: You're missing the point.
The idea that 40,000 aboriginals were dying a year, even 10,000 years ago is just not realistic. 20,000 years ago there probably wouldn't have even been 40,000 aboriginals in total.
@trapper: And yet, If you read the link in my previous post, those are the sort of numbers being estimated.
Why do you assume such low numbers for historic Aboriginal population? Populations don't grow linearly. They initially grow rapidly before plateauing once the carrying capacity is reached. If the population of Aboriginal Australians was 300,000-1,250,000 at the time of European arrival it is safe to assume that was the population of Australia from within a few thousand years of human arrival, climatic and environmental changes notwithstanding.
Edit: there are even higher estimates of the historic population in the low millions.
https://theconversation.com/the-first-australians-grew-to-a-…@twjr: It's not 'safe to assume' that at all.
Pre-agricultural human populations grew very-very slowly. We are talking ~10,000 years for a population just to double.
@trapper: Pre-agricultural human populations grow very very slowly ONCE THEY HIT MALTHUSIAN LIMITS. Until then they grow very rapidly. A handful of Maori found Aotearoa around 1000CE and by about 1200CE that population was larger than present day Maori (it then nosedived after wiping out the large fauna).
So if a handful of aboriginals crossed the Timor Gap 500 centuries (50 millenia) ago they would have obtained approximately their 17th century population (before the Dutch brought smallpox and measles) by about 498 centuries ago. Would not affect the average number of deaths over the 500 centuries per year much.
@derrida derider: Maori were not pre-agricultural.
They even brought with them and introduced a bunch of edible plants to New Zealand, including kumara, yam and taro.
edit: Also the Maori did not arrive in NZ until around 1250–1300 CE, so would have been exactly zero Maori in both 1000 CE and in 1200 CE :)
I remembered this case and was disgusted by the buyers' attitude and the outcome of the case.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/real-estate-agent-defends-mu…
When you buy a house, you buy the land, the location, the roof and 4 walls.
Other than things that tangibly impact one's enjoyment of the property like easements, covenants, liens, and other things like heritage listing, there should be no need to divulge what has happened in the house.
Where does it stop?
What if a devout loving Christian couple purchased a property previously owned and occupied by people of an alternative sexual orientation? Could they have a claim that the property is sullied?
Disclaimer : the above is a ficticious example only and does not reflect the author's views.
"Where does it stop?
What if a devout loving Christian couple purchased a property previously owned and occupied by people of an alternative sexual orientation? Could they have a claim that the property is sullied?
Disclaimer : the above is a ficticious example only and does not reflect the author's views."
You think that's bad, what if the contract you signed was actually written up by a mad scientiest who had this cloning device in the basement and you weren't allowed down there right but it was constantly making clones of him and it turns out in the contract it says his clones are allowed to commit suicide in the house even while you lived there so sure a guy had killed himself in the past sure, but then you had to live in the house while the same person kept killing himself in it over and over and there's nothing you can do about it and you've even gotta pay the power bills for the whole house even through you're not using the basement stuff you still have to pay for it right
Where does it stop, yeah? It's political correctness gone mad.
Disclaimer : the above is a ficticious example only.
From the article,
The family did not ask about the house's history, so there was no obligation to tell them
Note to self: Always during inspections, break the ice by asking if a murder has been committed in the house.
You should be asking those sorts of questions when you partake in any service anyway. First seven things I say when I get in an Uber are:
- how's your evening been
- has a murder been committed in this car in the past, to your knowledge or in your presence
- got any of them mints
- murder means murder of the self too so that includes suicide right that's covered as well
- how many shifts a week do you do
- is uber eats different or do you have to do uber if you do uber eats
- actually one of those water bottles would be nice if you got one cheers AND/OR if this is blood on the seats you're getting 1 star chief
LJH salesman statement. Buyers were immigrants with poor English knowledge let alone cultural knowledge.
Id be more worried about buying disused Christian boarding houses, particularly in Canada.
Disclaimer : the above is a ficticious example only and does not reflect the author's views… Actually no, i said it, i meant it and it reflects my views.
The owners have no requirement to divulge anything beyond what you mention, But real estate agents operate under fairly tight disclosure laws and they are legally obliged to reveal information (think it differs state to state) they are aware of that may be considered material in the purchasers decision making.
So I guess if you want to sell a house with a very dark history that may affect value or ability to sell you need to find an agent that is unlikely to be aware of said history and don't mention it to them so they have no duty to disclose it.
Yes, I'd have a ouija board in the house too so that when I go on holidays somewhere, I can hit the ghosts up and ask them to watch over the place while we're gone.
Too right, they live rent free, watch you when having a shower (sometimes join you as well), use the wifi.
Least they could do is to send a few books flying should there be a B&E.
Might take a walk through with an EMF reader first…
Definitely get a receipt for the cleaning bill and make sure it was done properly.
Would You Buy a House That Someone Committed Suicide in?
No way…
Wouldn't be caught dead living there mate
If I trip over the bodies, I think its a bit too much to buy as it is
Make sure the contract states the seller will remove all their stuff.
It’s still just a house…
Why not.Sad they died there, but it happens.
Doesn’t affect the house in anyway (assuming it was all cleaned up well etc)Heck, I’d be using it as a bargaining tool.
There would be a lot of empty rooms/houses/hotels etc if everytime a traumatic event occurred no one occupied it again.
really depends on your perspective … live there for a while, worst case scenario, you buy cheap and sell for profit …
this is OZB for christs sake, you guys aren't going to let a few dead people stop you from a bargain!!
I would if the discount was worth it and I didn't know the person who died.
No chance if it was someone I knew.
40% of Americans believe in actual ghosts.
Not sure what the figures are amongst the Q and numerology crowds over here though.
It looks as though suicides are spiralling out of of control for obvious reasons so it's probably going to become more of an issue. Or probably non-issue.
OP only mentioned suicide; nothing about ghosts.
And my understanding is that the rate of suicides in Australia has fallen in the last year or so.Suicides "spiraling out of control" in Australia? Less than 3000 people do that per year in Australia. Just over 1 per 9,000. That's hardly the definition of "out of control".
Everyone says yes till they actually live in a haunted house, then you change your opinion pretty quickly.
OP only mentioned suicide; nothing about haunted houses
It is assumed that if someone committed suicide in a house its possible that they end up haunting it, otherwise why have this question at all ?
I have no idea why OP has asked the question about a house where someone may have suicided.
I'd be interested in any credible information proving links between suicides and ghosts / hauntings or similar.@GG57: Sorry i don't argue with people on the internet, if you want credible information, maybe you should search for it yourself.
When I live in a haunted house I'll change my mind. Of course haunting isn't real, so I'm safe.
As nobody has ever lived in a haunted house this argument seems moot, no?
Better do a cleansing for the house. Use salt, get a esoteric master to move on any trapped energies etc.
Pretty much every old house has had someone die in it, so no problems.
I would absolutely buy it and rent it out.
If you ask if you would live in such a house then circumstances may effect people that have gone thru some lows themselves. To buy as an asset to flip I would say perhaps 1-5 % below market unless it was a pseudo homicide where somebody got pushed to be killed but the perbetrator got away with it. Sadly I know too many so in such a house I would not live. I know a few homocide inspectors dying to get a real job because sometimes they have to be in a certain system and it will eventually affect them. My uncle bought a house where a police inspector suicided. We never got to know the area the cop had to work but to sell such a house in France is now a huge handicap as word has gone around. He might has to write off around 30% to get rid of it!
As long as they'd cleaned up after it. I'm not going to get rid of the body myself.
Turn it into a tourist attraction for ghost hunters
A relative was living in a rental property (they'd been transferred to the town and they were hard to get, husband had organised it).
She was sitting on the front balcony one day with a friend when a bus turned up, followed by a couple of cars. Lots of people got out and started walking up the driveway.
She called out and asked what they were doing and was told 'this is the jury in xxx murder case and they are here to view the crime scene'.
Yep - hubby hadn't mentioned that to her. Someone had broken in and murdered the elderly couple that owned the house.
She did say that it didn't particularly worry her and that the house always felt full of love. The elderly couple had lived there for many, many years and raised a family in it.
I wouldn't if…
- i knew the person OR
- it was a tight neighbourhood and there would be a stigma about the house
Otherwise I'd be fine with it.
Personally I wouldn't, but am really glad someone has asked this, very interesting.
There is a good chance a hotel room you have stayed in where someone has passed and you have no idea.
Nope. Bad JuJu mate 😂.
… But ignorance is, as they say, bliss.I've lived in a house where someone committed suicide in the bathtub prior. It doesn't phase me.
Eventually you'll die and eventually there will be no spot left where people don't die (if that makes sense).
In fact there are probably already no spots in Sydney where someone hasn't died. Apart from the modern population, Aboriginal people have been living and dying there for 50,000 years.
I once lived in a house that was definitely "evil". Heard people walking around and noone was there… Lots of bad stuff happened in my life at same time. All bag feelings.. nightmares..all the time.
With all due respect, correlation ≠causation.
Likely a result of the stresses surrounding the bad stuff happening in your life influencing the interpretation of your environment.
Genuinely sorry for the stresses in your life, but an Evil House is not the underlying cause.No soon as I moved in it started and after moving house everything was fine. Life circumstances didn't change between the moves. The closest I can describe it is when you are house hunting and you instantly hate or love a place, overall feeling.
I don't doubt your feelings are sincere.
I just don't accept the atoms that make up your house are evil.
Absolutely, who gives a shit. Assume it's a clean suicide or it's been cleaned very thoroughly - if it's cheaper even better!
You commit a sin or a crime. Suicide is neither of those things (partly because sins don't exist). People's language around suicide needs to change. "would your buy a house that someone suicided in"
Came here to say this
With a fresh coat of paint, sure why not.
I ain't scared of no ghost
You would want to ensure that the property is forensically cleaned for peace of mind. Homicide/suicide clean ups are a specialist service and can be costly but they specialize in houses and vehicles. Police will often recommend this and advise how to contact them. It would probably be worse to purchase a property formerly used as a meth lab but…
"Choosing a forensic cleaner
When you are choosing a forensic cleaner, there are a few factors to consider.Type of property damage
If bio-hazardous materials are involved, such as blood and body fluids, you need to hire a forensic cleaner. If not, you may only need to hire a domestic cleaner. Depending on the extent of property damage, it might be better to replace parts of the property, such as walls, rather than restore them."Ever had one of your kids vomit in your car and not find out till the smell hits in summer?
Don't hire one of these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJoiGpOyte0
I can still remember the smell when my sister and I spewed in the back of our grandma's mid-80s Mirage after eating too many apricots. That smell never left the car to the day it was scrapped.
haha exactly, the smell burns into your memory bank, for life.
If knock down and rebuild i'm fine. If just as it is, probably not. Don't want to be imagining things the whole day. Unless i'm getting a good deal on it.
It would bother me, the Idea of it - that someone went through so much pain on the premises, is uncomfortable.
So I would say probably not, as there are other houses available.
But if someone committed euthanasia on the property I would be ok with it.
Assuming there's nothing gory left I'd have no problem. My house is 90 years old and worse things than a death have happened here.
When I bought my property it came with a tenant that was operating out of the place as a sex worker. I wasn't moving in until 6 months after I bought the property so didn't see a problem. In hindsight I probably should have kicked her out but she was paying a decent rent and was reasonable to deal with, until she wasn't. About 3 months in she took off without any notice owing 3 weeks rent and left the place in a filthy state resplendent with drug and sex paraphernalia. I'd much rather clean up a blood stain than that mess…
Depends on the cause of death, that's the question to ask. An oldie passing peacefully in bed or an overdose on the couch as opposed to… shotgun….
But yeah you are right, sometimes the living are more to be afraid than the dead. So my mother told me as a child…
I am not aware of any instances where the dwelling was the cause of someone committing suicide. So yes, I would still buy the place if it is otherwise what I am looking for.
Or more generally: I wouldn’t even want to know what the former occupants did in this place - unless it had materially impacted the property as such.
Yes. The responses make me think the price would not be impacted either, enough of a market unfazed.
Hell no My Picasso speargun is next to my bed without worrying about any of that shite 😂😂
But then again i have plenty of dreams where I’m fighting ghosts anyway, Girlfriend has said many times fighting ghosts again dear 😳 ….
Why only worry about suicide when all deaths can cause ghosts? Hauntings are equal opportunity, regardless of death type.
Pro:
- Suicide in the house gives you leverage to negotiate the price down.
- Ghosts don't exist. You can't be affected by something that's not there.
Cons:
- The type of suicide matters, and how long the victim was there before they were found. Hopefully the clean up was thorough.
- It may effect future value if someone finds out.
On another note, before the mid 20th century it used to be really common for people to die in their own homes. Both elderly and children. If you buy an old house it's highly likely someone died there already. Does it effect you? Not in the slightest.
I think the time between death and moving in helps. If it is a hundred year house, there is no possible attachment any more. If the previous owner killed themselves, that's some negative energy that still lingers, IMO.
Knowing my dumb depressed a$$, I would think about the deceased quite often. So, no I wouldn't want to live there.
I'm a spiritual bloke so no, I wouldn't. I could live in a house where somebody has died peacefully, but suicide or murder, no. That's some negative energy I do not want.
Look, aborigines have lived here for around 50,000 years. I think it's pretty fair to assume that an awful lot of first peoples have died of various causes including murder just about everywhere in that massive time scale, especially in desirable areas where all the organic capital cities are built (close to fresh water, close to rivers or ocean, would support plenty of wildlife, relatively flat, etc) - this definition excludes Canberra of course, so unless you live there…checks … nah, you're in Melbourne, you're stuffed, that's 50,000 years of negative energy right there mate.
What's the problem? Strange to me that it changes things for others….
No law dictates a discount, just disclosure of the event.
The event is the thing which tends to have the discount-inducing stigma attached