Chicago Woman Toured the Luxury Home Built Where a Haunted Church Stood and a Closet Door Slammed Shut With Nobody Near It

For years, an abandoned old church stood across the street from TikTok creator @tessa420_ in Chicago. Builders tried again and again to redo it, and again and again the projects stalled. When it was finally torn down and replaced with new luxury homes, she decided to see one for herself at an open house. In broad daylight, standing in a walk in closet with her partner and the realtor, she says all three of them heard a door close in a part of the house where nobody was standing.

In her video, posted in early October 2026, she sets the scene. Her neighborhood is full of apartment buildings and older homes split into multiple units, and she lives in one of them. Across the street sat the old church, which she describes as creepy and long abandoned. She says she watched multiple businesses try to remodel or demolish it over the years, but none could finish because they could not keep construction workers on site. Her explanation: the crews kept experiencing strange things, even in daylight, and walking off the job. She recalls seeing four grown men run out of the building, talking frantically, and the only word she could pick out was the Spanish word for demon.

Eventually the church came down, and several new homes went up on the lot. One is move in ready and has been holding open houses since June. Over the weekend there was another, so she turned to her partner and said, “let’s go.”

The Open House Tour

They were the only visitors. She told the realtor up front that they lived nearby and were just curious, but he laughed it off and insisted on giving them the full tour, eager to show off the home’s built in technology.

The trouble came in the primary suite. She describes it carefully: a his closet and a hers closet, each separate, both leading into a shared bathroom with two vanities facing each other. The three of them were inside the hers closet, about to step into the bathroom, when they heard the door between the bedroom and the his closet close, “clear as day.”

No one thought ghost at first. It was an open house, after all. The realtor called out an invitation to whoever had come in. Silence. Assuming the visitor might be hard of hearing, he went to fetch them. That is when, she says, the faucet at the his vanity turned on by itself.

She and her partner walked into the bathroom and stared at the running sink. The realtor opened the closed door from the other side and found himself staring at the same faucet. Nobody else was there.

@tessa420_

What happened next may be the most memorable part. She says the realtor looked more disappointed than scared. Speaking almost to the sink itself, he told them he had been trying to sell the house since June and that there were “a bunch of unexplained quirks that just keep happening.” When she asked if this was common, he answered, “this and 30 of its cousins.” He told them that in only about two open houses since June had nothing odd happened, and that he knows the house so well he notices doors closing that he left open.

The open house, she points out, was at 2 in the afternoon, with cookies and fruit punch set out on the counter.

Do Sellers Have to Tell Buyers About a Haunting

Stories like this raise a real question for buyers. In most states, sellers and agents are not required to disclose rumors of hauntings or other so called psychological stigmas, such as a past crime or death in a home. Disclosure laws focus mainly on physical defects like roof leaks, foundation cracks, lead paint and water damage.

There is a famous exception that real estate students still learn about. In a 1991 New York case often called the Ghostbusters ruling, a court let a buyer back out of a purchase because the seller had publicly promoted the home as haunted, then failed to mention it to the buyer.

If something about a property’s history matters to you, the safest move is to ask directly, and in writing, before you sign. An agent or seller generally cannot lie in response to a direct question.

Tips Before You Buy a Brand New Home

Ghosts or not, new construction has its own quirks worth checking.

Test the tech. Many new homes have smart faucets, motion sensors, automated lighting and app controlled systems. Ask how they are set up, who controls them and how to reset them.

Watch the airflow. Strong HVAC systems and tightly sealed new homes can create pressure changes that make interior doors swing or shut on their own. A good inspector can check whether doors are hung level.

Get an independent inspection. Even brand new homes can have plumbing, electrical or framing issues. Hire your own inspector rather than relying solely on the builder.

Research the lot. Look up what stood there before. Old buildings can leave behind buried debris, soil issues or, at the very least, a good story.

The creator has her own theory about why the homes are not selling, and it has nothing to do with the market. Whether you believe in ghosts or blame a pressure change and a smart faucet, it is one open house that three people are unlikely to forget.

Willow and Hearth