This happens in my house fairly regularly and honestly I still haven't gotten used to it even after three years. Slow, deliberate footsteps coming up the stairs, then just... nothing. Right outside the door. Every single time.
I've done the obvious stuff, checked for pipes, floorboards settling, the cat (she's downstairs locked in the kitchen when it happens). Nothing explains it cleanly.
What gets me is the consistency of it - always the same number of steps, always stops at the same point. That regularity feels significant to me. Random house noise doesn't repeat like that with such precision.
Living near Rendlesham I'm pretty open to weird stuff but ghosts were never really my main interest until this started. Has anyone tried any kind of recording equipment on the stairs? Wondering if an audio setup might capture something useful or whether I'm wasting my time.