Would you ever buy a house near a sex offender?

[RetireAge50]

I don't think I have ever met the neighbor two doors down. They might be a serial killer or anything else and I would never know. I'm sure there are wacky people everywhere and trying to live by only perfect people will probably be impossible.

We used to play in the woods as kids. No thought of safety whatsoever. Later they found bones of people in these woods killed by the green river killer. He only lived a short distance away.

I let my kids play in the woods when they were growing up otherwise I think they would be missing out on a lot in life. These are just my thoughts though and everyone has different levels of comfort.

 

[youbet]

Given that DW and I are long time empty nesters, the only consideration we'd give to the situation is future resale value. I don't know the answer to that one and I think it would be tough to determine in advance.

 

[ERD50]

It's kinda creepy googling this subject, but States often have laws that a child sex offender can't live within xxx feet of a school, playground, etc.

I don't think that applies to other categories of sex offender though, so it might not protect you from a serial rapist or other forms of creeps.

edit - I see now this was also mentioned in post #5

-ERD50

 

[rodi]

So what happens if you buy another house with no sex offenders nearby and two years later, a sex offender buys the house two doors down from you? Would you move?

This was my thought as well. There are no guarantees that you won't have a sex offender move in next door, sometime in the future.

Is the house discounted, or can this be used as a negotiating point in the purchase price? Seriously - I'd consider it if I could get a good enough deal on the house. And I have kids at home.

We have various minor sex offenders within a few blocks of our house. Several are geriatric old guys living in the senior community near us.

 

[utrecht]

Would not bother me in the least. If the state had any real evidence he'd be locked up forever.

Even if the guy was caught on video tape and later confessed to the crime, there are very very few crimes for which the punishment is life in prison. So, your statement makes no sense.

 

[W2R]

We have a situation where we've been looking at quite a few houses and feel like we've finally found a house that we both like with good schools and a good location and is not totally out of the price range because it hasn't already been fully remodeled so people aren't throwing down cash offers for it.

BUT... a sex offender lives two doors down. According to online reports, he was convicted ten years ago of possession/control of obscene material depicting a minor and also sending/selling/distributing said material. So I guess I'm stating the charges because he wasn't convicted of harm against a child but of harboring this material. Meaning, I hope there would be a little less threat to my personal safety or the safety of the children we intend to have.

However, to me, this is still a definite no, but my husband is kind of wavering on this, seeing as we feel like we've found THE house and we're tired of the process and all the disclosures check out and we were about to write an offer.

So, opinions?

If it was me, I'd go ahead and buy the house. By the time you have kids and they are getting around the neighborhood, he may have moved.

If he has not moved by then, you may want to decide at that time if you want to keep the kids away from him or not. I would not invite him into my home with kids present, but in my case I am not at all likely to do that no matter who he is. I don't really party with my neighbors a whole lot.

 

[travelover]

It is the criminals that are not known that keep me up at night.

 

[NW-Bound]

You may be talking about www.crimereports.com
That's what I looked at when I was looking for housing in the bay area (Northern CA) years ago.

I knew about sex offender registry, but never thought of looking it up. Wow, indeed they are all over the place.

The question is how serious a crime a particular listed perpetrator has committed. The crime may be something serious as rape or molestation, or
"a second prostitution conviction, sending or receiving obscene content in the form of SMS text messages (sexting), ... public urination, having sex on a beach..."

Here's another Web site that has some classifications. It is still not clear to me, but it appears most are not violent criminals: Family Watchdog.

 

[MRG]

Even if the guy was caught on video tape and later confessed to the crime, there are very very few crimes for which the punishment is life in prison. So, your statement makes no sense.

It does to me!

The OP said the guy was caught with underage porn. Normally if you get the kiddy label sentencing can be the max allowed, granted maybe not life but still er, stiff sentence. Course I'm frequently full of it too.

Still wouldn't bother me, guy got caught and paid the piper. If he killed 3 others you'd never know, but this person carries a label for life. I'm much more wary of morons like my neighbor, never been in trouble, only because no one caught him.

 

[GypsyGrasshopper]

Better the devil you know.....

Child molesters, pedophiles, perverts - children molested by people you’d never think would do it – close family relatives, teachers, priests. We’ve all read about them but I doubt that anyone expects it to happen to their child. I have two friends that were sexually molested by a family member when they were children. I knew a middle school teacher who molested a 12-year old child. For me, “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”. I know it’s a hard lesson to learn, but KNOWING that there are threats nearby can motivate parents to teach their children how to protect themselves from bad people wherever they may appear, not only in childhood but into adulthood as well.
I’d be creeped out by a man that I knew was a collector and distributor of child porn, but knowing who that person is provides one with an incentive to protect our children through education rather than having a fallible sense of security and then being blindsided by a local (Good Humor man/paperboy/candy store owner/soccer coach) child molester.

Since registered sex offenders are the first suspects in any sexually-oriented crime, your possible neighbor is probably the least of your worries. If the house is the right one for you wrt location, price, etc., I'd say buy it and understand that constant vigilence is the price of parenthood.

Good luck no matter what you choose.

 

[gauss]

And this is precisely the reason that I have never surfed any of the sites that would show "sex offenders" near me.

Don't want to know -- no good can come of it. Limit the opportunity for anxiety to creep into my consciousness.

My understanding is that violent crime in America is way down from the levels it was in the 70s when I was growing up.

-gauss

 

[devans0]

Have you considered talking to neighbors about problem people in the neighborhood? Perhaps ones with children?

 

[harley]

Like Senator, I know a guy who was convicted of receiving and sending child porn, and again, it was a tiny amount of his porn collection. He was a little pervy, but a nice enough fellow in general. He claims to not have realized the girls were underage, but who knows? I also know of a guy who was on trial for having sex with an underage girl. The woman I know that was on the jury said the girl told him she was 20, and she looked it, even though she was 15 (he was in his mid 20s, and was found not guilty). And a cousin of mine has a friend who ended up on the sexual offender list for urinating in public after a college football game (in an alley). Each of these people were either dumb or scuzzy, but none of them were/are dangerous. The list is fairly meaningless IMO. Even though I do have a kid and grandkids, I wouldn't avoid buying a house unless the list said the person was convicted of physically molesting a child. Even then it wouldn't be a deal breaker, just something to consider.

Of course, DW might feel completely different about it. And she'd gladly have all the golfers that pee in the woods behind our house arrested and put on the sex offender list.

 

[Texas Proud]

Here you can look up sex offenders.... I have not done it in a long time, but I doubt there is a single neighborhood that does not have multiple locations with one residing...


Also be aware that even if there was not one next to you when you bought, there is nothing preventing them from moving in the next day...


As others have mentioned, it kinda makes a difference in what they did... IOW, a BF and GF can have consensual sex but he is over 18 and she is younger and he get listed as a sex offender.... no problem here IMO...


Edit.... wow, just looked and there are NONE in my neighborhood.... there are a couple in the next neighborhood and a few more in the next ring, but not as many as I had seen when I looked many years ago...

I am surprised with how many got probation when their crime was with a minor....

Here is the link for Texas


https://records.txdps.state.tx.us/SexOffender/

 

[akck]

I'd bet that in many residential areas, you'll find a person on the list living within 1/4 mile of any house you'd be interested in. We bought our house many years before any list existed and over the years, there has never been a problem and yes, we have offenders within 1/4 mile. So, if you have kids, just be aware of their activities and friends. Being involved with them is the best way to keep them safe.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[ziggy29]

Keep in mind also that not all "sex crimes" are alike, and some of them are extremely low risk for actually committing significant sex crimes. In some places you can be put on the offender registry and branded with the "scarlet letter" just for getting a little too intoxicated at a college party and urinating into a bush outside. Or someone who was barely over the age of consent having "consensual" relations with someone just under that age, maybe no more than 1-2 years younger. I don't think that's the kind of person the system intended to be treated as dangerous, unemployable garbage for the rest of their lives.

 

[Senator]

In addition to my comments above, I would guess that in most major cities there are higher crime areas.

Those areas would be exponentially more dangerous that living near a sex offender.

 

[ponyboy]

Being labeled a sex offender is not so cut and dry. If I had children I may be singing a different tune...but like others said what if you buy a house and a sex offender moves in down the street? Then what...

2 stores on opposite ends of the spectrum about sex offenders.

I knew a guy that went to my high school...he was in the military and 18 years old. Him and his buddies had consensual sex with a 17 year old girl...all parties were sober at the time...multiple guys, one girl. Everything was fine until father found out...went to police, next thing you knew all the guys were arrested/labeled a sex offender, no jail time served.

The 2nd...a baseball coach that coached young kids throughout little league. Had a wife, had a son and a daughter. Was a little strange but was intense with coaching...was actually a good baseball coach...knew the game. Turns out for many years he was raping his daughter. It happened to her at least her entire time in high school...so from 14-17...sometime after she graduated high school, maybe when she was 18 she exposed him. He was arrested, thrown in jail and is now out in the free world...also labeled a sex offender.

In PA if you go to the sex offender database it doesnt give specifics. Both of the individuals I spoke about above are labeled the same. One raped his daughter and one had consensual sex with someone who was 1 year younger than he was. Seems really fair huh?

 

[eytonxav]

If no kids, I'd probably go ahead and buy if I were planning to live there for a long time. If you contemplated selling down the road, not sure how that might affect your ability to sell. What do the realtors say?

 

[ponyboy]

In some places you can be put on the offender registry and branded with the "scarlet letter" just for getting a little too intoxicated at a college party and urinating into a bush outside.

I believe this is the case in my home state of MD. You can be labeled a sex offender for relieving yourself outdoors. I like to golf but will not walk into the woods on any course in MD and urinate anymore. Probably shouldnt do it anywhere to begin with but all guys seem to do this on the course at some point.

 

[HFWR]

Now if there was only a database for overbearing, nosy a-hole neighbors...

 

[RetireAge50]

I'm sure there are many people in every neighborhood that would be on "the list" but have not got caught.

 

[Bir48die]

I completely get the concern. I understand protecting your family and wanting to keep everyone safe. Being aware is smart.

However, there are a couple of other ways to think about this:

1) People do stupid or sinful things. We all do.
2) Sex Offender is a very broad category and encompasses many things. Distribution of material is passing photos back and forth on the internet. I have guys I work with passing porn back and forth during work hours.
3) We are quick to judge, slow to forgive.
4) Maybe he's changed his life around and will have this hanging over his head.

I'm in the camp of if you have any issue to knock on their door and have a conversation. I have found that many people that have made mistakes are willing to talk about them. If you have a level of comfort then you move ahead. Whomever he is probably has had to deal with this frequently so will not be a surprise.

 

[tmm99]

There's a website that shows the location of registered sex offenders in the area. There are a surprising number of them nearby (within a few miles) including several within a few blocks. So it maybe that while this person is the one you know of, he may not be the only one near you.

I am sure that there are former and current offenders of many types, not just sex crimes, around here. Probably wouldn't enter in to my decision to move here if I didn't already live here. No kids to worry about though.

I earlier said crimereports.com but I think I used meganslaw website (I think this only contains sex offenders in CA).

 

[Bestwifeever]

From the OP (my bolding)

According to online reports, he was convicted ten years ago of possession/control of obscene material depicting a minor and also sending/selling/distributing said material.

If I were planning to have children I would not want to buy a house where I know ahead of time that only two doors away, this person, who sees children as sex objects, lives. This is not someone taking a whiz behind a tree or a 17-year-old dating a 15-year-old or any of the less serious offenses that someone might have on their record, this is a pretty hardcore crime. And yes anyone could later move nearby, but this one is a known factor. I would worry about my children, other young family members, and also their friends when they come over. Why risk it when you are still shopping around?