DUNMORE, Pa. (AP) — Between the mysteriously banging doors, the odd
noises coming from the basement, and the persistent feeling that
someone is standing behind them, homeowners Gregory and Sandi
Leeson are thoroughly creeped out by their 113-year-old
Victorian.
So when they put the house in northeastern Pennsylvania up for sale
last month, they advertised it as "slightly haunted."
Then things got REALLY weird.
There were calls from ghost hunters. An open house attracted lots
of curiosity seekers, but no legitimate buyers. And a former
resident came out of the woodwork to tell the couple that when he
was a kid, he found a human skull in the basement — the same
basement whose door Sandi Leeson once barricaded because she swore
she could hear the clicking of a cigarette lighter emanating from
the subterranean depths.
It's enough to make her husband wonder whether he did the right
thing when he playfully wrote about the home's spooky charms:
"Slightly haunted. Nothing serious, though," says the listing on
Zillow's real-estate site. It goes on to describe 3:13 a.m. screams
and "the occasional ghastly visage" in the bathroom mirror.
The listing attracted local and national media attention. Now the
Leesons just need an actual buyer for the four-bedroom home, on the
market for $144,000.
"I tried to word it with a little bit of a sense of humor," says
Greg Leeson, a 35-year-old who works in information technology, but
"I don't think it has helped with marketing. We're not really
getting very many interested buyers. We're getting a lot of
nonsense people."
Spring should bring more traffic. But if it doesn't sell, Leeson
said they might consider renting it out — by the night — to folks
looking for spooky thrills.
While Leeson concedes the home has a "creepy vibe," he doesn't
believe in ghosts.
And his wife?
"I definitely think there's a spirit or a ghost in the house, just
from my personal experiences," she said.
