Would you buy a haunted house?

Our Oct. 25 story on the family driven out of their Meaford home by inexplicable events garnered a lot of attention - and inspired last week's poll question, which asked readers if they would purchase a home connected to stories of ghosts, hauntings or other unexplained happenings.

The majority of readers - at 61 per cent - said no, while 26 per cent said they would and 13 per cent said they would consider the purchase.

Of course, this question assumes prior knowledge. As we learned from Bob Aaron's column, it's buyer beware when dealing with stigmatized real estate.

Personally, I think I would have difficulty buying a home connected to such stories - if I knew about it.

Living in older homes in both Halifax and Toronto, I'm accustomed to creaks and weird noises, and am not concerned by the fact that people have likely died in them. But I don't know any details, and I like it that way.

Being aware of a murder in the home or hearing stories of strange events would create a whole different situation. I would end up questioning every creak - has someone broken in? What's that noise? - and it would just create a very uncomfortable living situation.

Whether the stories had any truth to them or not, the power of suggestion would wreak havoc on me on nights at home alone.

And, in the case of weird occurences, like slamming doors and power outages, the practical side of me would also ask whether there are structural or wiring issues causing the problems, which could be expensive to fix.

So, even with a good deal, I'm not sure if I could handle the purchase of stigmatized real estate - mentally, emotionally or financially.

Comments

[dalton]

im from meaford and have been in the house
my friend use to live across the street and she was friends with a little boy there
there is no doubt in my mind that its haunted
5 people have dies there one a suicide
walls got smashed in the middle of the night
laundry magically folded itself
when they moved out and the house sits vacant
the neighbors report hearin the fire alarms go off even though they are dissconected
neighbores have also reported seein the lights bein turned on and off even though it is vacant

[rchapman]

I am the owner of the above house
We came out in the open with the haunting as we have been wronged. It is about a big corperation McIntee, telling us they would help us and then changing their minds. At first admitting that this is real and that they would help us and then telling us to keep quiet or they will sue us. This is real, we have had many groups investigate and they all say the same thing, the house is haunted. We are selling the house for
20 000 more because of closing costs, home inspection etc. We are trying to get our money back nothing more. We have been offered T.V. etc. Which we have turned down. We are not trying to make a movie or anything like that. We want people to be aware that this is real and that this can happen to regular hardworking people.