Ghosts in My Home: How to Know If Your House Is Haunted

Strange noises. Unusual smells. A weird burst of cold air. That nagging feeling that someone is watching you when you’re home alone. We’ve all felt these at different times in our lives. While lots of people chalk these feelings up to fatigue, paranoia, or a rat infestation, others attribute these experiences to one thing – paranormal activity.

Not everyone believes that ghosts exist in real life, but others swear to have experienced residual haunting at least once in their lives. There’s no definitive method on how to know if your house is haunted, but there are paranormal investigators whose job is exactly that – to search for ghosts.

How can you tell if your house is haunted? Here, we will outline some things to watch out for to confirm that there’s something supernatural in your house.

Classic Signs of a Haunted House

• Cold Spots

You may have noticed that there’s a cold spot different from other parts of your house no matter what time of the day it is. When you enter a room and you’re immediately assaulted by a low drop in temperature changes, although the doors and windows are closed, then it could be a sign that there’s a paranormal presence there.

• Strange Sounds

If you keep hearing mysterious noises in your house, then it might be that your house is haunted. If you’re home alone, and you hear unusual sounds in a place where you’re sure there’s no one else, then there might be a spirit lurking around.

Things like footsteps, scratching sounds, banging, slamming doors, or disembodied voices around the house, especially at night, could sound scary and make it impossible for you to enjoy your sleep.

• Weird Smells

One of the telltale signs of a ghost presence in your house could be a really strong, yet unrecognizable odor. If you’ve tried deep cleaning your home and used different chemicals to take care of the bad smell to no avail, then the explanation for it can no longer be natural.

If you have a deep feeling that your house could be rotten from the inside out, then there might be a supernatural side to it.

• Energy Spikes

Another sign that your house could be haunted by a ghost is an unexplainable surge in energy. This surge can result in flickering lights from your light bulbs.

Paranormal experts argue that when people die, their energies get converted into electromagnetic energy, which could result in blinking lights.

• Shadows

Unexplainable shadows are one of the signs of a haunted house. Sometimes, you may see someone quickly walk past you and when you turn to investigate, you can’t find the person at all.

In some other cases, you might see the movement of strange shadows from the corner of your eye. These unusual sights could be a sign that your house is being haunted by a ghost.

• A Sense of Unease

We all have a sixth sense that tells us when something isn’t quite right somewhere. This unexplainable feeling may not necessarily have logical reasoning behind it. For instance, you may walk into a room and have a feeling that something is staring at you, but when you look around you find nothing.

You may also have a strange feeling that there’s a presence in or around your home, and you just can’t shake that feeling. You definitely should be paying attention to that gut instinct, as that might just be your spirit’s way of warning you against other, well, unearthly spirits.

• Discomfort From Your Pets

If you’re confused about how to know if your house is haunted, then watch the behavior of your pets. If your pets, who are usually quite playful and easy to be with suddenly become aggressive and begin to bark or growl at a specific place in your house, then something strange is happening there.

Similarly, if your dog or cat can prowl anywhere in or around your house but judiciously avoids going to a specific room or corner, that could be a sign of paranormal activity happening in that specific corner. Our furry friends are usually dedicated to helping us, so if they act scared of something which you can’t see, it’s best to be careful.

If Not Ghosts, Then What?

If you’ve experienced any or all of the above signs, then you could have spirits in your house. Don’t be scared though, as it’s not the only explanation for your predicament.

There are lots of natural explanations for a seemingly supernatural occurrence. Let’s take a look at some of them here:

1. Rodent Infestation

Remember those strange noises? You could be in your kitchen trying to prepare a meal when you hear a sound just above your head, scratching persistently. It could be a case of rodents making their home in choice spots around the house and terrorizing you in your own home.

Rats and mice can also be responsible for the blinking lights you usually experience – they might have gnawed their way through your circuits and wires. Before you blame the ghosts, you might want to first call an exterminator to get rid of the pesky rodents, and your problem might be solved.

2. Settling House

Would you be surprised to discover that each house has its unique sounds? Yes, those squeakings and groanings that keep you awake at night could just be your house’s foundations settling, especially if it’s an old house. If this is so, you have nothing to fear.

3. Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

You might swear that you experience ghosts in your home, and even your family can bear witness to the fact that there’s something not quite right in your home. If more than one person notices strange happenings, it may not be that your house is haunted by ghosts but that you all are victims of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Carbon monoxide poisoning is caused by the burning of fossil fuels such as gas, kerosene, charcoal, or wood. You could get carbon monoxide poisoning if there’s a gas leak in your house, or if the fumes being emitted from your fireplace don’t properly go out through the chimney.

Carbon monoxide is odorless, so you wouldn’t know anything is amiss, however, you might experience symptoms such as nausea, weakness, headaches, and yes, hallucinations. The hallucinations could explain the nightmares you get as well as the scary symptoms outlined above. It can also kill you and your family.

Isn’t it strange that even though you’re afraid of dying at the hands of a ghost, you’ve been slowly dying at the hands of poisonous gases!

A quick way to get rid of carbon monoxide from your house is to keep all windows open to let out any buildup of the noxious gases in the air. You could also evacuate your family from the house for the time being while the professionals work to identify the leakage source and stop it, so you can live peacefully and enjoy your home.

4. A Trick of the Light

The shadows you’re complaining about could be a trick of the light reflecting in a certain way. If you have left a window open, it might cause the light to hit certain objects in a spooky way.

5. Poor Ventilation

If your house isn’t adequately ventilated, it could cause some pockets of frigid air, which you can mistakenly attribute to a mystical being. An open window can also cause drafts of cold air in the room and also cause the temperature to drop alarmingly.

6. Poor Electrical Wiring

The electric appliances in your house may be wrongly wired or old (that’s if those rodents haven’t gotten their teeth into it). Loose light bulbs can cause the lights to flicker alarmingly, causing you to infer wrongly that it’s one of the signs of a ghost haunting.

How Can You Detect Paranormal Activity in a House You Want to Buy?

Before buying a house, you’d like to be sure that everything is to your liking. While preparing to purchase the house, it is a good idea to make sure that no ghosts are lurking around.

Here’s how to find out whether strange occurrences are happening in the home you want to buy:

1. Study Your State’s Disclosure Laws Carefully

Some states demand that sellers must disclose certain characteristics of the home they offer for sale, including whether it’s stigmatized property. According to the National Association of Realtors, stigmatized properties are properties that have been negatively impacted by events such as suicides or violent crimes.

If your property is disclosed as a stigmatized property, it’ll affect the price of the home and the demand for it. This disclosure also gives you full knowledge of what you’re getting into if you choose to go ahead and buy the house.

However, not every state has this as a requirement, which means you need to employ other methods to determine the history of the property. If the disclosure laws aren’t available, there are still other options to explore.

2. The Former Occupants Left in a Hurry

One of the first things you ought to do before buying a house is to verify the safety of the neighborhood. You can do this by planning a friendly visit with your future neighbors. As you discuss with them, make sure to ask them about the history of the house.

You can ask them why the former occupants left the house. Did they relocate because of work or to be closer to family? Or did they leave because of something paranormal, perhaps?

Also, you might want to ask if anyone recently died in that house, and under which circumstances did the person die? Most haunted houses are places where people died in gruesome ways like murder or suicide.

3. You Got the House At a “Steal”

If the price of the property you want to buy is so low compared to what it should be, then it deserves a closer look. Don’t be quick to rejoice at what a good price it’s offered for, at least not until you’ve done your homework about the history of the place.

If when inspecting the house, you realize that it’s still solid, with no need for a major renovation or any other factor which is responsible for reducing its worth, then best believe that it could be because of spirits.

Yes, there must be a reason that has chased prospective buyers away from the property. Since there are no reasons which you can see, it could be perhaps what you can’t see – a haunting. It’ll be a terrible thing to buy a home that everyone else seems to have rejected and end up living in fear of ghosts.

Conclusion

Some activities in your home can be truly alarming. These happenings could be a sign that there’s something unexplainable going on.

Here, we have explained some signs of how to know if your house is haunted. We also discussed some alternative explanations for those phenomena that have nothing to do with ghosts.

It’s also worth mentioning here that not all spirits are bad. If you have a friendly ghost in your home, such as the spirit of a dear friend or relative who is yet to fully exit our world, then you can freely live with the spirit hovering around.

However, if the spirits in your home are truly evil, then it’s time to send them back to their world with the help of some mystics. They will carry out paranormal investigations and banish the spirit to its final resting place so that you can enjoy your home without fear.

If you’d like to purchase a haunted house or other kinds of unusual properties at an excellent rate, reach out to us at Homes By Ardor for inquiries or consultations. Our professional real estate agents are available to meet your property purchase needs.

Steph Wilkinson

In her 25-year career, Steph Wilkinson has been involved in the acquisition, marketing and sales of over $3 Billion dollars of residential real estate. A number of years ago, Steph transitioned into Brokerage Leadership for National real estate brands and tech start-ups. She has served as a Business Strategist for real estate agents and brokerages alike and is also a real estate coach and trainer. In her new role with the Iconic Team, Steph will be responsible for the growth of the team and will be working with all of our agents to increase their productivity and bottom line.