Haunted? How to Know.

Ok, yes, this is a real estate blog, but after doing some research, I found out that a main reason some people won’t buy a home that is a lot older is the haunting factor. Coming from a guy that doesn’t believe in that sort of thing, it sound preposterous. I would move into the Amityville house if the price and location suited me. With that said, people have turned away from houses simply because they gave them a “creepy” or “eerie” feeling. I have showed houses in the past and have the clients tell me after that they got a weird vibe that something was watching them. I have heard this from several people on several occasions. I equate it to the fact that they saw a movie or heard a creepy story when they were younger and it triggered an eerie memory.

The number one thing on the list of ways to tell is unexplained noises like footsteps, knocks, banging, rapping, scratching, or dropping of items. Sometimes these noises can be subtle and other times they can really loud. My opinion of this one is that especially in older homes, there is a lot of settling, cracking, and squeaking associated with the materials of the house and they mechanicals. Old fans, electric boxes, plumbing, and wood make noise. It is that simple. Now, if you are hearing voices, you may want to contact a psychiatrist not an exorcist. It is my personal opinion that every noise has an explanation. People let their imaginations run wild, but I bet if the owner mustered the courage, they could find the source of the noise and it wouldn’t be a ghost.

In regard to the noises,my dad told me a story about how we lived in a large apartment in Germany that was very old. He happened to be reading a scary book at the time and down the hall, he kept hearing a crazy loud banging and scratching noise from an empty room. The noise would stop and go. He admitted that he was too scared to check it out the first night because it obviously wasn’t a human noise so his fear of a burglar on the 11th floor wasn’t realistic. The next day he went into the 3 empty rooms down the hall but didn’t find anything but a slightly opened window. He had not opened the window so it added to the strangeness. The next night, sure enough, he heard the sounds again. He decided to check it out this time. Long story short, a bird had gotten into the room. Now that the window was closed, it couldn’t escape. It was obiously out of sight when he checked the room earlier that day.

Sort of related, with an explanation comes our next sign the house may be haunted. Doors, cabinets, and cupboards opening and closing without explanation. This is one I hear a lot about as well. Now, we should all know how this one works. If we close certain doors in the house, drafts change. You may hear a door slam if you close a window on the other side of the house. Also, we may open a cabinet, then forget we opened it, so when we go back, it looks like someone else did, or should I say something else? So the doors and cabinets part may be true, but it isn’t without explanation. Ghosts don’t just bring wind apparently, they bring electronic impulses. Lights turning off and on is a “sign” that your house may be haunted, right? No, it is a sign that your electrician didn’t do his job or that a pest chewed some wiring.

Here is one I touched on in the intro. Feelings of being watched. This is not an uncommon feeling and can be attributed to many things, but it could have a paranormal source if the feeling consistently occurs in a particular part of the house at a particular time. Or it could be what I said earlier. You may relate certain places, smells, or visual cues with a memory. That memory may be creepy. We often smell things like cut grass and picture our days of playing football or soccer. That same formula applies to the paranormal factor in my opinion. Peole go further and say that they have the feeling of being touched or even pushed. I can say that every now and then, I will get a weird and random small muscle spasm. This could easily be misrepresented as a touch from a demon.

My point being, if you are scared of ghosts and demons, buy a newer home. You should make sure it isn’t built on the old “indian burial ground’. That is one of my favorites. People aren’t going to buy a house that gives them a creepy vibe. I recently had to go into a home and the whole vibe was sullen. I found out after the fact that someone had recently passed away in the home. I went through the pictures of all the rooms and was hoping to catch some evidence of paranormal activity. Funny how that works, but nothing was there. It is my opinion that if there was real haunting and possessing going on, there would be far better evidence. Just don’t watch The Conjuring before you go house hunting and you will be ok.