Thread: advice on moving to where there is not allot of tot or traffic

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hey there looking for some advice. we are looking at a house where there is not allot of other houses or tot's.
the house has good potential as far as the yard and the garage is detached.
just trying to determine if all the work for the yard and planes for a haunt will be worth it.
any body else have this problem and any ideas

I used to have that problem in our neighborhood. It never got any better. We ended up moving the setup to my in-laws house.

How far away are the nearest houses? Is the area gentrified of any certain age group? Even though we live in a massive residential area, there aren't many kids so we have a very poor turn out, I think age can be a big factor.

We live out in the country with only two other houses on our street, both older couples. We have no ToTs but I have two kids (12 & 14). Last year we started a new tradition of a huge Halloween party and haunted hay ride. (we live on 14 acres). We have the party the weekend before Halloween . This year we are raising the number of guests and adding a haunted house walk through to our hay ride. I still get to decorate and have people see my hard work, and all the money I save on not buying candy to pass out is just more I get to spend on the party and props! Plus I get to decorate the whole house for people and not just the yard.

IME, a bad spot really doesn't get much better with age. I had a home downtown, when I moved back here from ATL, and the first year I moved in there were all of 3 ToT's. 4 year later, I had soaring numbers! A grande mal inducing total of 8.

Thankfully, I am now in a neighborhood where there are plenty of kids. In one of the best hoods around this end of town, where kids from the surrounding area come to ToT. Going from 8, to 200-250 sure made up for all the years of feeling like the efforts went to waste...

Just my .02¢

I bought my beheaded victorian bride along with some other halloween props from a guy who had moved to a street that just didn't get kids. Not many living on the street; and due to the traffic pattern near there, kids and parents skipped his street for a more traffic friendly neighborhood. He loved halloween and decorating the house and yard for the kids, and had some great stuff, which now is mine. He said he held on to it putting stuff out for 3 years and even added more lighting to attract the kids, to no real avail. I think he even told me one year he made up a haunted house sign pointing down the street in his direction. Said his daughter was getting older and they talked it over and felt that they would be better off selling their stuff to someone who could make use of it and put the money he got towards toys for his daughter instead. I really felt badly for him.

On the other hand my parents neighborhood where I grew up went from lots of kids to everyone growing up and moving away with mostly retired families left behind. However as older neighbors either downsized or died and their houses were sold, new young families have begun populating the area again. Mom and dad said this past year they had about 20 kids up considerably from recent past years.

Take a slow drive (or walk) through your neighborhood and look for yards with tell tale signs of kids living there. Swingsets, toys or bikes in the yard, are a good indication. Don't look like your stalking or stakeing out the place but if you can catch the parents outside you can strike up a conversation and hand out flyers for your haunt. If your sure kids live at a particular house but can't catch anybody at home, you can leave a flyer in the door.

I would start this about 2 weeks before Halloween. Folks that may be interested may come by before Halloween to see your yard haunt in progress, and make a mental note to come by. Heck they may even tell their friends about it.

If your keen on the flyer thing, you can leave them where you know kids will frequent. playgrounds, Boys & Girls clubs, even the Halloween or toy isle at the local Wally World.

Our Spirit Halloween store has a big bulletin board with haunt flyers on it every year.

Marc V.

Deep subject, worthy of a lot of fore-thought. Two and a half years ago my son bought his first house, and TOT's on Halloween Night was something he considered. Alas, his older, established subdivision has a lot of empty-nesters living there. Great location, big, mature trees, humungus lots (Lakewood, WA, south of Tacoma) just very few kids. He's disappointed.

This can be a tough decision! I myself love it too much to let go! I once moved into a large luxury apt complex for 2 years and went all out for Halloween even though we had many neighbors that did not participate or had no kids. We had about 30-40 TOTs those years(94-95'). It was a lot of work pulling out my Halloween stash from mom & pops garage(15 miles away) but well worth it! Just depends how much of a die hard you want to be. You can always go all out indoors just to satisfy your haunted desires. Hope all works out and best of luck to ya!

location, location, location. that's what they preach. i use to live in a small town, i started with 25 tot. every year it grew. i got up to as many as 250 kids. loved it. then i moved to a smaller town 5 miles away. 25 kids the first year, and about that for the last 9 or so years. i think that's all the kids in town. i still do my haunt. was more fun when i had more kids. good luck.