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I guess I've got Halloween on my mind, but I was listening to a radio interview recently where the topic of haunted houses arose, in the context of certain states requiring disclosure during house sales, if you believe your house to be genuinely haunted. How this would be proven, I have no idea, but it's very interesting, nonetheless. They mentioned PA & CA/FL (the interviewee wasn't exactly sure) as possibly being several such states. They also mentioned that in PA, someone has to ask directly if the house is haunted or if there were a murder/suicide. According to the interviewee, the seller does not need to volunteer the info, but cannot hide it if asked. Does anyone live in such a state & if so, does the disclosure help/hinder sales? Perhaps in some cases, it makes the house a novelty & increases the value? I suppose, depending upon the type of entity wreaking havoc - does the ghost just eat all the "good" cookies, keep you up all night rattling chains or pull out hair (as in one such story)?
Just wondering, did anyone ever go for a house viewing, only to be told such a story Re: a haunting? If so, did it influence your purchasing decision? And, better yet, did anything happen that was odd, while there?
Or, did anyone ever purchase/rent/grow up in a haunted house? I've heard some stories of King's College dorms in Wilkes-Barre, PA having such problems. A long-retired relative used to work in admissions at the school & said she heard student's stories of haunted dorms all the time.
Lastly, does anyone live near a haunted house? If so, do you think it would effect the sale price of your house, should you sell?
Can't wait for responses! As I'm such a scaredy-cat, I'll be reading them during the daylight hours!
Have fun... Baltic_Celt
Last edited by Baltic_Celt; 10-23-2006 at 02:35 AM..
I have never ever lived in a haunted house.
But I have spent time in places that had a haunted history, and met people who definitely dealt with the supernatural. I do believe that a sort of "human residue" can be left behind.
One brief story is about a friend of ours who went to visit her younger sister. The sister was living in an old two-story house with a bunch of roommates while she attended college.
Our friend said that no sooner had she parked her car in front of the house when out of the blue she suddenly got a bad, bad feeling. Just a feeling of immense sadness, mixed with fear.
It just got worse and worse as she entered the house, and reached almost physical discomfort on the second floor. She finally said something to her sister.
The sister said that yes, they got that woeful feeling, but only when they were in a certain room up there. They kept that door shut to contain the bad vibes.
They never learned the home's history or anything like that.
I guess our friend was more sensitive than the sister, but the thing is, she's a very down to earth person; really not into that sort of thing at all.
Very interesting, thank you for sharing. I agree with you Re: bad vibes/residue being left behind. Actually, we've all felt it if we've walked into someone's home & could feel an argument that took place beforehand. It's just palpable. I used to have a boss that you could feel walk thru the door before you saw him. The whole office just froze & not in a good way. But, he could be felt 20-seconds before he walked into our office.
I've had or heard of many such examples, that if I listed them all, people would think I certainly had an overactive imagination. What's interesting to me is their response. I'm a scaredy-cat by nature, but also very curious. I don't know if I could live in a house where I had to stay away from a room. I know I'd have to find out why & need to do something about it. Yep, "curiousity killed the cat", but...
I actually do have a few examples of horrendous phenomenon taking place, but I'll save it 'til I get some sleep, otherwise I'll be up for days!
I don't know what the real estate laws are in my state, but I know that realtors seem to not want to talk about the subject. When we looked at the house I live in now, I felt nothing but pleasant feelings. I have a sense for those things as well so looking at houses that was on my list of things to "feel out". There were a few houses that I changed my mind on because they had a creepy feeling. But this house.. this house felt so peaceful and safe so I figured I'd found a keeper. I was puzzled when I learned that it had been on the market and vacant for a year. It's a very nice house in a quiet spot in the city, has been upgraded nicely and has plenty of room for the average family. It just didn't make sense to me why it was empty so long and that the seller had just dropped the price almost 30k. At any rate, this was the house for us so we bought it. The first night we moved in I awoke to a pressure on my chest. I really can't explain it, it felt like someone was pressing down on my chest for a few moments. That was the start of the strange happenings. Countless things have happened- hearing voices and no one is there, items being moved, things coming up missing, interior doors rattling with no explanation. I could go on and on. We've had neighbors tell us that our house is haunted as well, and one told us the lady we bought the house ran because she was scared. I've never been able to verify this as I cannot find her contact info now. We never met her, only dealt with her realtor. She sent me a note after we first moved in and said she only lived here for 3 weeks. I thought that was strange but assumed maybe there was a death in her family or divorce or something that would cause her to move out of the area. Anyway, I've mentioned some of the things to our realtor after buying and he never responds, just changes the subject. I don't think knowing would have changed my mind about buying as it's a nice house and does have a peaceful feeling reguardless of the odd things that go on.
I don't know what the real estate laws are in my state, but I know that realtors seem to not want to talk about the subject. When we looked at the house I live in now, I felt nothing but pleasant feelings. I have a sense for those things as well so looking at houses that was on my list of things to "feel out". There were a few houses that I changed my mind on because they had a creepy feeling. But this house.. this house felt so peaceful and safe so I figured I'd found a keeper. I was puzzled when I learned that it had been on the market and vacant for a year. It's a very nice house in a quiet spot in the city, has been upgraded nicely and has plenty of room for the average family. It just didn't make sense to me why it was empty so long and that the seller had just dropped the price almost 30k. At any rate, this was the house for us so we bought it. The first night we moved in I awoke to a pressure on my chest. I really can't explain it, it felt like someone was pressing down on my chest for a few moments. That was the start of the strange happenings. Countless things have happened- hearing voices and no one is there, items being moved, things coming up missing, interior doors rattling with no explanation. I could go on and on. We've had neighbors tell us that our house is haunted as well, and one told us the lady we bought the house ran because she was scared. I've never been able to verify this as I cannot find her contact info now. We never met her, only dealt with her realtor. She sent me a note after we first moved in and said she only lived here for 3 weeks. I thought that was strange but assumed maybe there was a death in her family or divorce or something that would cause her to move out of the area. Anyway, I've mentioned some of the things to our realtor after buying and he never responds, just changes the subject. I don't think knowing would have changed my mind about buying as it's a nice house and does have a peaceful feeling reguardless of the odd things that go on.
Call in TAPS from Ghost Hunters!!!! And yep Baltic Celt, you can get a house certified as haunted. Usually by a paranormal society, etc. I've had one encounter with paranormal activity, but have never been aware of having lived in a haunted house.
I guess I've got Halloween on my mind, but I was listening to a radio interview recently where the topic of haunted houses arose, in the context of certain states requiring disclosure during house sales, if you believe your house to be genuinely haunted. How this would be proven, I have no idea, but it's very interesting, nonetheless. They mentioned PA & CA/FL (the interviewee wasn't exactly sure) as possibly being several such states. They also mentioned that in PA, someone has to ask directly if the house is haunted or if there were a murder/suicide. According to the interviewee, the seller does not need to volunteer the info, but cannot hide it if asked. Does anyone live in such a state & if so, does the disclosure help/hinder sales? Perhaps in some cases, it makes the house a novelty & increases the value? I suppose, depending upon the type of entity wreaking havoc - does the ghost just eat all the "good" cookies, keep you up all night rattling chains or pull out hair (as in one such story)?
Just wondering, did anyone ever go for a house viewing, only to be told such a story Re: a haunting? If so, did it influence your purchasing decision? And, better yet, did anything happen that was odd, while there?
Or, did anyone ever purchase/rent/grow up in a haunted house? I've heard some stories of King's College dorms in Wilkes-Barre, PA having such problems. A long-retired relative used to work in admissions at the school & said she heard student's stories of haunted dorms all the time.
Lastly, does anyone live near a haunted house? If so, do you think it would effect the sale price of your house, should you sell?
Can't wait for responses! As I'm such a scaredy-cat, I'll be reading them during the daylight hours!
Have fun... Baltic_Celt
Here in NJ, that is something that isn't disclosed. We're also not supposed to even tell a potential buyer that a home is an estate because of peoples' personal issues regarding their theories on "haunted" homes.
Over twenty years ago, I lived in a house in PA I would definitely call haunted. Not only did I hear the footsteps, I 'saw' the dark figure of a man in the doorway between the kitchen and laundry room several times. I was the third owner of the house, so I don't know if the energy was attached to the people I bought the home from or the original owners.
Not only did I sense this presence while awake, I would 'see' him as I began to fall asleep, which is the alpha state and our intuition is very sensitive during that time. I sensed he was a man in a dark suit, and one time I perceived a minister's collar.
This went on for a period of a few weeks, I was okay with all of that until one late afternoon / early evening while my 4-y-o DD was napping, I decided to lay down for a bit myself. I was dozing off, then 'saw' this figure in my mind, but he was holding my DD! I woke up with a start after seeing that. (Listen, I know this sounds crazy).
As I sat up I heard heavy footsteps marching back & forth downstairs in the kitchen. I thought it was my DH, who I wasn't expecting for a couple of hours yet, he told me he'd be working late. I wondered what the heck he was doing marching around the downstairs like that.
Went downstairs to see what was going on...no husband. I checked the garage...no car. Looked in the driveway...no car there either.
Then I really got annoyed. If you looked through my window, you would have said 'that crazy lady is talking to herself!' I stated very clearly out loud that I would not tolerate his presence in my house, enough was enough. His behavior was not acceptable to me, and he was to move on. (Funny thing is, a friend of mine who lived 20 minutes away called me that evening and asked me "WHAT is going on with you? You keep popping into my mind and I'm getting a very unsettled feeling!" Is that wierd or what?)
The next day I burned sage throughout the house while saying the very powerful Lord's Prayer. I urged the energy to find the light and move on. It did work. No more visits from that dark figure.
Two years later my first DH passed away suddenly, then that started an entirely new batch of occurences. That's another story for another day.
Two years later my first DH passed away suddenly, then that started an entirely new batch of occurences. That's another story for another day.
I know exactly what you mean, Adream. I've definitely felt spirits around, but they've always been family and I think of haunted as being scarey. I've never been scared of the spirits I've felt.
Yes, I have lived in two haunted houses. Both of them in New Jersey. The first one was a huge old house I rented for a while; seven bedrooms, three baths, a library, servants stairway, the whole nine yards! When we were upstairs we would hear LOUD banging on the walls downstairs. The walls actually vibrated upstairs! We never went down there, though, when it was happening. Too scary! The other house was also rented, again a largish house and there was one room upstairs that was not 'finished'. This room was always cool to cold no matter how the rest of the house felt. Everytime I went in there (used for storage) I got totally creeped out and at night would hear walking in the hallway when there was no one upstairs but myself and husband. Right before we moved we found out that the owner of the house was murdered there and it was a neighbor who killed him!
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::cue creepy Twilight Zone music here:: 
Boo!
