In the spirit of Halloween, I thought I would ask the specifics on selling a house that may have spirits lingering within. When I think about the possibility of a house being haunted, it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I'm the girl that can't hardly step out into the back yard alone at night. I used to have to let my dog out for the last potty break of the evening before heading to bed. Just waiting for him on the porch was hard enough. I can relate to Forest Gump when he said, "wherever I went, I was runnin'!" I hear creepy stories of houses being haunted and it gives me the eebie jeebies. Then I think about the experiences I have, and it's not really all so bad. Here's why.
I spent the first 8 years of my life living on the outskirts of Kalispell, Montana. My family had a house with about 8 acres surrounding and our property line boarded a private cemetery. I never really thought about it being full of so called "energy", but people asked me about it more often than not. "Do you ever see anything out there?" "Don't you get scared when you hear noises?" I guess growing up next to it, I never knew any better. I always thought those kind of questions were a bit ridiculous, but now that I think back, it is kind of wierd. My brother used to set up tree forts right next to the fence line and spend all night out there. God only knows what they were doing, hopefully not playing hide and seek behind the stones. But it never really occurred to me that there might actually be ghosts, good or bad, right next to my house!
My dad spent most of his childhood growing up in a house where a man was murdered by his wife back in 1930. Believe it or not, the small Eastern Montana town of Glasgow, Montana actually made headlines in Times Magazine, way back in the day. Mr. Arnot was a prominent banker and well-to-do man of town, however, his wife was of a different opinion. After hosting a dinner party one evening, Mrs. Arnot slipped some poison into his after dinner drink and proceeded to roll him into the living room rug, drag him down to the basement of the house, and light him on fire next to the furnace. Of course she played the innocent card and ran out of her house screaming that her beloved husband had been murdered by an intruder, but the towns people knew it was no accident. Years later, my grandfather, grandmother and their 7 kids moved in, my dad was assigned the only room in the basement, which was only accessible through the area of violence. Although he did have access to the cellar door for his evening escapes and the only shower in the house was located next to his room (hard to imagine when there is 3 levels in the house) but I don't think I would have chosen that room for myself. Up until the day my grandmother sold her house 3 years ago, I took the quickest showers possible so I wouldn't be down there alone any longer than necessary. Being an old house, creeks, cracks and rattles continuously sounded throughout the days and nights. I slept on the top floor of my twin aunts room and it always took me ages to get to sleep. My brothers and sister told me that Mrs. Arnot has actually chopped up the body of her husband and put him in the furnace. So his soul actually traveled throughout the house and ended up right next to the bed I lay in and watched me as I slept. Sick joke, why do they always do that to me!!!! One of the last times I slept in that house I'm convinced that I actually heard some events just outside the house, but that's the closest I have ever come to actually thinking that ghosts exist. I awoke midway through the night to pipes banging, and it sounded like it was just beneath my window. I opened the window a tad to peak and didn't see a thing, but the noise kept getting louder and louder and suddenly stopped. To this day, no one admits they heard the pipes, but I know I wasn't dreaming.
Do Realtors know the whole history of homes before they sell them? And if they do, do you have to tell the potential buyers about the possibility of haunting?
Happy Halloween and feel free to share your stories!!!
Erika
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