Spooky stories from residents of haunted houses

As Halloween approaches, things can get a little spooky, and whether you believe in ghosts or not there are more people than you’d think who have a tale to tell from a haunted house. 

Caterina Ligato, known as the Australian Ghost Whisperer, explains what it means to live in a haunted house.

“A haunted house is any environment where there are spirits. They will gravitate towards any kind of place. I guess houses are more common because, as in our human experience, we try to naturally create a home – an environment that represents warmth and love and protection. It’s our sacred space,” she explains.

“When somebody dies and they have not crossed over, they will seek a home that feels familiar to them. They may not return to their own home, but they may find a home that represents a feeling of what they had when they were physically alive, and they will gravitate towards that. 

“And what happens is, once you’ve got a few spirits within an environment, it begins to open up other doorways to draw in other spirits. So, other spirits that are floating around, lost or lingering come together and cohabit a home with the living people.”

From mysterious footsteps in the hallway in the dead of night to strange lingering smells that won’t go away, these haunted house stories will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. 

Heaven scent?

Jane Langof, a feng shui practitioner based in Sydney, says she often meets clients who claim they’ve experienced paranormal activity in their homes.

She has also had her own experience in which a lingering smell would come on suddenly and not leave. She employed the services of spirit medium, Kerrie Erwin. “Kerrie detected a spirit in my daughter’s bedroom. There was an inexplicable smell of body odour in her room, I suspected it was a ghost and was right. 

“This apparently came from a spirit I brought home from a building site. The smell magically disappeared after Kerrie got rid of the spirit. Once the spirit was gone the smell completely disappeared. It was amazing,” she says.

Bump in the night

Selling a house with ghosts as residents is a tough ask of an agent, and Samantha Odo was tasked with just that when she represented a charming old mansion in Canada.

“The house had a reputation in the neighbourhood for strange occurrences, like flickering lights, unexplained cold spots, and eerie noises in the dead of night,” she says.

In Canada, it’s not uncommon for a potential buyer to test out a property and stay in it for a night, but this isn’t always a good thing when trying to sell a haunted abode. 

“One evening, during an open house, a potential buyer decided to spend the night to get a feel for the place. As the night wore on, they claimed to have heard faint whispers and seen shadowy figures moving through the hallways. Terrified, they finally fled the house at dawn vowing never to return.

“That property proved to be a tough sell,” Odo says.

Odo assures buyers though that not all home purchases come with ghostly companions.“Of course, these stories are often more about the power of suggestion and the mystique of old, creaky houses than actual hauntings. Still, they add a unique layer of intrigue to the real estate business.”

Intruder alert

Anna Hutchcroft, who is based in the Northern Rivers of NSW, says she experienced paranormal activity not at her own home, but at her ex-boyfriend’s. 

“I was sitting in the living room watching TV with him and started hearing cupboards and drawers opening in the kitchen. It was the first time I was at his house, so I asked if his housemate had come home, he said ‘no’.”

He then explained to Hutchcroft that he shared his home with a ghost and that usually it didn’t bother him when he was alone, but always made itself known when he had guests.

Needless to say, Hutchcroft didn’t spend much time at his house after that.

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