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Would you buy this house? (crime scene)

Its my guess that they students were reluctant to wear the sweater because by doing so it would be like wearing the uniform of the enemy. The students were probably a decent bunch and wanted no association with a scumbag serial killer.
 
Eddie Dane said:
What if you could get all your drinks from now on for only 25% of the price, on the condition that you drank them out of a (brand-new and perfectly clean) piss-pot?
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Do I get a straw? Because it's not easy drinking out of one of those things.
 
sthomson said:
In the United States, it may be illegal not to reveal this sort of information to a prospective buyer. My in-laws recently sold their house and had to construct a very detailed inventory of all work done and why.
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You have to disclose material defects. At least in the State of Missouri.

Most rational people would not consider this a material defect. If it was me, I wouldn't disclose it.
 
How different is this from all the 'haunted' homes with crimes a century or so old? Someone still died, it was just a little longer ago.
 
The Central Scrutinizer said:
You have to disclose material defects. At least in the State of Missouri.

Most rational people would not consider this a material defect. If it was me, I wouldn't disclose it.
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We're apparently working on a state-by-state breakdown, which is good as I never said that such a thing was nation-wide (indeed, it is dangerous to make such an assumption about any regulation in the United States).

Wikipedia makes it pretty clear that most states require realtors to inform prospective buyers of recent murders or suicides, or recent owners/events that were well-known in a negative sense (such as a house owned by Charles Manson or OJ Simpson). Are there any states that don't levy these requirements on realtors?
 
This idea that non-material qualities stick to material objects is very common. I might have my lucky baseball bat, a treasured copy of some book, or an aversion toward dark rooms. I'd probably shy away from drinking holy water.

One of my favorite stories on this is about building the "perfect boat", told by Roger Schank (5th entry down) titled Irrational Choices http://www.edge.org/q2005/q05_8.html

"I do not think that people are capable of rational thought when it comes to making decisions in their own lives."
 
I'd love to find a perfect opportunity like that house. I'd make a point of seeking them out (not just murder-scene houses, but any other house that people pretend has less value for no reason at all) if I knew of a way to do so, and if I believed there were enough of them.
 
The Central Scrutinizer said:
I don't like your attitude.
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Look, I'm being perfectly honest here. What you said was stupid and disturbing. The rape and murder of a child is a horrifying thing and it really is a damned shame that you said it was a "cool crime".

This wasn't a fictional event. An actual, living human being suffered and died at the hands of another person there. To call this occurrence "cool" is to show a shocking lack of empathy.

I suppose I've made my point. You can pretend that I'm nitpicking or treating you badly if you want to, but I'm not. Your attitude was literally disturbing.
 
Delvo said:
I'd love to find a perfect opportunity like that house. I'd make a point of seeking them out (not just murder-scene houses, but any other house that people pretend has less value for no reason at all) if I knew of a way to do so, and if I believed there were enough of them.
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This was a very high profile case.
The girl was missing for several days. Her picture all over the media. many people felt empathy for her and her family.
Then it turned out that the killer was neighbour, living a couple of houses away.
The guy was a cop, which again made it a continued media event.
then it came out that he had buried her in the garden had literally given a BBQ on top of her grave.

When the house came for sale it made front pages of the sensationalist news outlets. There are so many prospective buyers that it will probably go for the normal price.

But one could certainly make use of the psychological reaction to horrific events and snap up cheap real-estate.

I actually suspect that the shock effect will wear off and if a normal family lived a happy life in it for ten years, the house will probably be perceived differently by subsequent prospective buyers.

That Gestapo villa looked positively spooky for years, now that it is in use the horror atmosphere had subsided in my view. (and in this case the architecture was spooky to begin with, it looks like a good setting for the next Bates Motel).
 
Eddie Dane said:
I actually suspect that the shock effect will wear off and if a normal family lived a happy life in it for ten years, the house will probably be perceived differently by subsequent prospective buyers.

That Gestapo villa looked positively spooky for years, now that it is in use the horror atmosphere had subsided in my view. (and in this case the architecture was spooky to begin with, it looks like a good setting for the next Bates Motel).
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That's an interesting question. How much 'nice' is needed to counteract the original 'evil'? If the serial killer's sweater had then been used to warm babies in a distant orphanage/nunnery, would the jinx wear off?

You could even set up a cognitive dissonance thing between different beliefs. See if a blessing by the Pope would remove the innate disgust you might feel eating roadkill.

This whole thing does have real world applications. For instance, how someone might feel about themselves after being raped, or getting past instinctive prejudices against another race.

I have read (I think it was Shirley Glass, Ira Glass's mom) that the best predictor of divorce was when you felt disgust for your partner. Not hate, not anger, but disgust. What a powerful mechanism it is!
 
phiwum said:
What you said was stupid and disturbing humorous.
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Fixed it for you. I see you're new here. We have oodles of gallows humor at this site. Eases the shock and all. We discuss some pretty awful stuff here. Some can't take it.

Word of advice: don't get bent all out of shape unless you the other poster's intent and that has to be without a doubt. See Hanlon's Razor.

Welcome to JREF. :)
 
phiwum said:
Look, I'm being perfectly honest here. What you said was stupid and disturbing. The rape and murder of a child is a horrifying thing and it really is a damned shame that you said it was a "cool crime".

This wasn't a fictional event. An actual, living human being suffered and died at the hands of another person there. To call this occurrence "cool" is to show a shocking lack of empathy.

I suppose I've made my point. You can pretend that I'm nitpicking or treating you badly if you want to, but I'm not. Your attitude was literally disturbing.
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Does that make me a psychopath?
 
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