Rent.com conducted a survey that found more than 2/3 of renters ain’t afraid of no ghosts, and would live with them as long as they got a hefty discount on rent.
From rent.com’s press release:
While the survey found 11 percent of renters believe they have lived in a home inhabited by ghosts, others would be willing to do so in order to save money. In fact, 69 percent of renters would be willing to crash with Casper for the right price. More than half (51 percent) of renters would share their home with a ghost in exchange for free rent, and over one quarter (27 percent) would do it for half-price.
Three in 10 people who have rented (30 percent) said they’d bunk with the boogeyman if they received free utilities, while nearly one in four (23 percent) would do it in exchange for a free flat-screen TV with cable.
Overall, 31 percent of renters said no deal. Nothing, “not even a million bucks,” would convince them to conquer their phasmophobia (fear of ghosts). However, a greater percentage of males than females are willing to live with ghosts for any given tradeoff (74 percent vs. 64 percent).
This data just goes to prove how much more daring women are than men. Judging from the Twilight phenomenon, a significant portion of women not only don’t fear vampires, they lust after them, so long as they’re metrosexual and sparkly.
So, Consumerists, let’s have it out — would you live with a ghost? Have you?
(Photo: MReder Design)
More From Consumerist
-
These Best Buy Customer Service E-Mails Would Be Hilarious If They Weren’t Real
-
As Offline Retail Dies, Commercial Real Estate Apocalypse Looms
-
City At Vanguard Of Housing Crash Could File Bankruptcy This Week
-
Woman Spends Night In Jail Over 10-Year-Old Traffic Ticket
-
Subway Worker Hurls Hot Soup At Robber Because It Hurts More Than Freshly-Baked Bread
When I was growing up it wasn’t the house that was haunted, but rather us as a family. My brother’s dad died in an airplane crash and Mom ended up marrying his best friend (my dad) because they had a death-pact.
Apparently “Fred” did not think Dad was holding up his end of the bargain so he haunted us. Mostly he would slam the back door. The house would shake and echo with the noise, but the door was always dead-bolted shut.
About 10 years after I left home, Fred decided his business was finished and he left.
When I told Mom that I was buying a 118 year old house she had to ask if it was haunted. I knew it was clean when I first walked in and, indeed, me and the cat are the only occupants.
Dad hung around for a couple of months after he died, but he only had a few things left that he had to make sure we finished for him.
I believe my current cat Bruce is the reincarnation of my cat Boots, who was murdered by a neighbor with a baseball bat. Boots had so much unfinished business that he had to come back as a live cat.
Sometimes you have to believe in unexplainable things because the “logical” explanantions are even more far-fetched.
@vorpal_hamster: I’d like to haunt the baseball bat person. >:(
@HogwartsAlum:
Karma is having its way with him. He ended up divorced and broke with drug problems and his kid was disfigured because of his idiotic behaviour, so his kid hates him too.
I’m not a huge believer in hell as a physical place you can go after you die, but I’ll make an exception for him. Actually, my generally Gnostic belief in hell as the human condition is working out nicely for him as well.
I’d have to say that anyone who doesn’t believe in ghosts hasn’t lived in a house that’s a hundred years old or more. Living in Savannah GA for four years changed my mind!
WHO YOU GONNA CALL?
But it would seriously depend on what previous homeowners said the ghost activities were. Moving door, fine. Exorcist? Screw that.
Yep…of my long list of things experienced…I’ve lived with the ghost of the contractor that hanged himself in my basement. He wasn’t a poltergeist per se but he did annoying stuff with the tv, moving small stuff around, and screwing with the lights all the time.
They say that animals (ie dogs) can “see” ghosts and I can attest to that, at least it seemed like she was transfixed in the hallway where most of the stuff was happening.
My parents managed to traumatize the hell out of me when I was younger by telling me how my Great Aunt Amanda died in our house by falling down the stairs. Every creek they would say “Oh, it’s just Amanda walking around”. They thought it was a funny little joke, but inside my little kid self was paranoid as all hell. I am 23 years old now and I still run as fast as I can when I am visiting and in the basement at night and need to turn off all the lights before going to bed. The other day I was out for a run in the bright sunlight next to a busy road and listening to the radio on my iPod. They were talking about the movie, Paranormal Activity and I was still starting to get freaked out. Traumatized for life!
“Judging from the Twilight phenomenon, a significant portion of women not only don’t fear vampires, they lust after them, so long as they’re metrosexual and sparkly.”
My girlfriend hates Twilight with a burning passion, and yet you just described her so aptly.
The previous tenant killed himself in one of the apartments I lived in, they only gave me $25 off a month on rent but I don’t believe in ghosts or anything so I was happy with any discount.
It would depend entirely on the particular ghost. Casper? Sure. Homicidal poltergeist? No thank you.
It’s late in the day even on the west coast but if you’re out there the current podcast on iTunes for “The Moth” is a hilarious story by Joan Juliet Buck about her maybe haunted apartment in Paris. Very funny.
Heck no! I don’t care if it’s Casper the friendly ghost, I don’t want no one watching me while I take a #2
“Ya know you should eat more fiber to prevent that.”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUGH!”
Hell yes, I’ll take advantage of a sucker who believes in ghosts.
@ooloncoluphid: Right on. Metaphysical bullshit IMO. Give me the discount please.
What is it with these childish beliefs in the supernatural? I consider these people just as delusional as religious people.
@axiomatic: Amen!
Sorry, people… I’ve never seen a ghost, heard a ghost, felt a ghost. I don’t believe it for a second at all.
This reminds me that I need to go on a ghost-hunting expedition.
A dorm I lived in a few years ago had a student die in one of the rooms. Something really stupid and random like OD’d on cough syrup. But he lived in a single and it was a few days before anyone said, hey, has so-and-so been out of his room lately?
(That part’s all true, newspaper reported on it at the time.)
Reportedly, people assigned to that room later would refuse to stay — demanding room transfers, pledging to fraternities just to GTFO, moving in with GF, whatever, until one day one of the CAs said he’d had it, he was going to spend the night there and prove there was nothing wrong. And according to legend, he scrambled out the door at 3 a.m. and the room was eventually boarded up.
Note to self: Pull newspaper files, find room number, go see if the room numbers skip/have been painted over.
Actually I bet there are people who would pay a higher than average price to live with ghosts.