I look at a LOT of real estate photographs, since I’ve been on a perpetual house hunt for the last 2.5 years. Every now and then, something like this pops up as I’m endlessly swiping through boring house pictures. I have to believe that the owners have a sense of humor, or perhaps they don’t actually want to sell their house.
I’ve spent a good portion of my adult life studying houses and their particular spirits, because I am convinced that every house has a life of its own, either created through the multiple energies of those that lived there, or perhaps manifesting that life independently of the living . . . it’s always a mystery, one that–for me–requires unraveling and research. The photos that sellers post on real estate sites are supposed to be a reflection of the warmth, the love and the joy that the home contained; however, some homes simply have none of those emotions associated with them:
I think someone died on that toilet. I don’t understand why anyone would think that this is a good idea. I see a vaguely threatening figure in the shower.
This is not a welcoming hallway. Notice the scratches on the wall on the left hand side of the photo. WHAT animal did that?
Some people are very, very conflicted about selling their home. I understand that, I really do. I had to be dragged kicking and screaming from my house on Marmora. I made little “tear crosses” on the walls, promising that I would return. It was a pathetic, terrible scene, one that lingered in my psyche for years. So yes, I get it; you need to sell, but you really don’t want to, so you post photos that are ‘ambivalent,’ to say the least. Your choice of image reflects your state of mind. Maybe the next photo simply makes me look crazy, but I kind of like it:
What I find scariest when visiting houses is not the nutty or creative decor, but the sterile, Home Depot remodels that strip all life from a place, like the following photo from a current listing in Simi:
I would rather live in a haunted house, a house with emotion, a house that has been decorated and redecorated a thousand times and shows its age, than live in a place that looks like a clinic. I end with a house photo that I love. It’s a little, old shack in the hills. I hope one day, it might be MY little, old shack in the hills:
–Kirsten A. Thorne, PhD/PHW
The Soul Bank: Stories, Research, Essays, (B)Logs 