House Hunting

When I’ve gone house-hunting, I generally look for a couple of things – closets and places to put “stuff”, a nice kitchen with lots of lights, and a place for the Christmas tree. Everything beyond that is kind of secondary.  Of course, I haven’t been house-hunting for about thirty years, so maybe my expectations will change the next time I’m in the real estate market.

My sister, Maureen Tan, says that when she goes house hunting and has an overall feeling that the place is dark, she realizes now that it means it’s probably haunted. She told me that once she starts saying things like, “Well, this room just needs a few more lights,” or “We could brighten this place up with a lighter color on the wall,” she realizes that nothing “cosmetic” is going to help her.

I was reading a favorite Facebook page where someone had a similar issue when she was looking for a house. She said: “I had the weirdest thing happen tonight. We’re looking at houses and the last one we saw was just ok, but the master bathroom was probably the nicest part. It’s bright and modern and pretty inviting, right? But the minute I walked in… I have never had such a strong “Get the hell out of here” feeling in my life. Like something was almost pushing me out. I don’t know what happened in that bathroom, but I will not be living there! There were parts in all of the houses that were dark and “could” have felt creepy, but this bright bathroom was the place that sent me running. I’m sure the realtor thinks I’m a nutjob, but I have a feeling she already did.”

The responses to her post surprised me:

“I was the exact same when house hunting. There were several seemingly great houses that I literally walked in 5 steps then said: “nope, has bad vibes” and turned around and walked out. I get it!”

“There was one house that my dad came along to look at with my husband and me and it had such awful vibes. The whole place felt heavy and sad and all three of us said the same thing as soon as we got in the car”

“Totally get this. Years ago, I went to an open house, climbed up the stairs to the second floor, and just noped the hell out of there. Don’t know what it was, never felt that type of feeling before or after. But it was bad.”

“When we were house hunting there was one house we later referred to as the murder house.”

“I have a friend that has that happen to her. It’s a physical feeling to her. she feels a pressure on her that pushes her away. As for me, I get a complete lack of smells in places like that. I can walk just a few feet away and smell a plethora of scents, but the moment I step into the space, no smell.”

“Nineteen years ago, my then-husband and I, along with his parents, were looking for a house. We looked at two in relatively the same area. Both houses were the same size. The more expensive of the two had a smaller yard and a lot of work needed to be done to it. It had old-fashioned olive-colored flocked (velvety) wallpaper in the living room, which wasn’t as bad as the bedrooms. Each was done, literally, from floor to ceiling in a neon color. One room was hot pink, one neon blue, and the master was yellow. Even the blinds on the windows were those colors. Anywho, we liked the floor plan though, and there was a fireplace. But then we go down to the finished basement. Paneling on every wall. There were small storage rooms off the main room. Each door had a padlock hasp on it, and the light switch was at the opposite end of the room from the door. Before we saw any of this, though, all four of us got the creepiest vibes from this basement. I refused to go into one of those storage rooms alone. None of those little rooms had any windows either, which I found odd. But I got this feeling that if I stepped into one of those rooms, which was maybe six feet wide, 8-10 feet deep, to turn on a light, the door would slam shut on me. None of us got good feelings from this house. We ended up getting the other house that was cheaper and with a bigger yard, and had things happen there.”

“I had the same feeling when I took a trip to Ireland and went into the Galway Cathedral. A lot of people were comforted by the place. I left the place almost in a dead run. The site of the Galway Cathedral though. There used to be a prison there and the Cathedral was built, I think, using some of the walls of the former prison.”

“This happened to a friend looking at a lovely home in “old Pasadena”, very established, very beautiful homes. One step inside and both she and her husband immediately got a very bad feeling. Though spacious and a lot of house to see, they didn’t get much past the foyer. They couldn’t get out fast enough.”

How about you?

Does your “Scooby-sense” ever alert you to paranormal presences?

Have you ever had a situation where you walked into a place, only to immediately walk out?

I’ve always felt that Zillow ought to have a category called paranormal experiences added to their real estate listings. And, it sounds like, others might like that category too!

Happy Friday!!!