Results 1 to 10 of 10

Thread: Weird

  1. #1
    Senior Dog
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Ellicott City, MD
    Posts
    6,626
    Thanked: 3641

    Weird

    A friend who lives a few blocks away from me emailed me and asked if I'd moved...she saw that my house was for rent.

    What???

    Now....she knows my house. Maybe not the exact number. I don't know her number off-hand but know her house. Same thing.

    My house doesn't have a for rent sign on it. No house on my street (not a through street, by the way, someone would have to deliberately come down my street for a specific purpose, not just be passing by) has a for rent sign. Two are for sale but they don't seem to be part of this equation.

    She looked me up on the internet. Not to find my house number/phone number. She had to have Googled my address and come up with one of the real estate websites...for an erroneous address. Come to find out, one of the houses on my street is up for rent again...no sign....and has a similar address (two digits different, similar pattern). Regardless...

    She was looking on the internet for info about my house. Why???

    I replied yesterday, just saying that we hadn't moved...didn't plan to move....what address did she look up? My unasked question...because I'm figuring nosiness of some kind and really don't want to embarrass her...is "why were you looking me up?".

    I didn't get a response. Which didn't surprise me a whole bunch, all things considered.

    But.....is there a better reason than nosiness for checking house information on someone? If she wanted to see if my house was higher/lower in value than hers, that's easy. Mine is older and smaller (but with much better location/land area)...she wins. She knows my house as well as I know hers.

    I saw her just a couple of weeks ago...if I were moving, it would stand to reason that I'd mention it.

    I don't get it. Anyone???

  2. #2
    Senior Dog zd262's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    Posts
    1,280
    Thanked: 760
    If she is like me it could have been that she frequents any of the rental websites like zillow, realtor, redfin and have just been looking at listings that were in an area or they provide a map version but sometimes it is hard to see specifically which house on a street the listings were for. Hoping it wasn't for too weird of a reason!
    Hidden Content

    Hidden Content

    Bubba's instagram: @thebubbinator

  3. The Following User Says Thank You to zd262 For This Useful Post:

    SunDance (05-19-2019)

  4. #3
    Senior Dog
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    MI
    Posts
    733
    Thanked: 440
    I sometimes poke around real estate sites for listings in my area but usually I just put the zip code not a specific address. Sometimes just to see prices of what is on the market to gauge the value of my home, sometimes just to be nosy and get decorating ideas.

    If if she looked up your house specifically, that is weird. Even weirder is asking if you moved since you just saw he, and like you said, would have mentioned it.

  5. The Following User Says Thank You to JC001 For This Useful Post:

    SunDance (05-19-2019)

  6. #4
    Senior Dog janedoe's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    New England
    Posts
    5,095
    Thanked: 1922
    I keep an eye on activity in our town. Zillow shows just a general color coded map of any given area. I find that it helps predict a recession or housing market downturn.

    I wouldn't be too hard on her. Your property was clearly listed in error and it set off a red flag for her.

    Just for the record, professional suggestions on linkedin reflect who's looking you up. That's how we knew that our next door neighbor was snooping around after we told him to back off our property.

  7. The Following User Says Thank You to janedoe For This Useful Post:

    SunDance (05-20-2019)

  8. #5
    Senior Dog
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Ellicott City, MD
    Posts
    6,626
    Thanked: 3641
    Quote Originally Posted by janedoe View Post
    I keep an eye on activity in our town. Zillow shows just a general color coded map of any given area. I find that it helps predict a recession or housing market downturn.

    I wouldn't be too hard on her. Your property was clearly listed in error and it set off a red flag for her.

    Just for the record, professional suggestions on linkedin reflect who's looking you up. That's how we knew that our next door neighbor was snooping around after we told him to back off our property.
    No. Our property wasn't listed anywhere and there's no "for rent" sign anywhere on our street. The two "for sale" signs aren't close to the front of our house/driveway. (if she was on our street for some reason which also makes no logical sense) If you Google my address, house info comes up but "not for sale".

    I can appreciate what you're saying...but it doesn't seem to apply. And if she was just checking addresses in general, she probably would have stuck to her own street or streets closer to her own (or houses more the size of her own)...I think. I don't know...nothing seems to stick.

    I just think it's weird. For many reasons, actually.

    Oh, and for what it's worth....I don't really care if she was just being nosy. But she isn't someone I consider to be nosy...just the opposite, actually...so it's strange. I was hoping someone here would say, "oh, you know, I do stuff like that because....." and then I'd have a reason. I can't even figure out why she'd care about my house in the first place, though, and so it's striking me as strange.
    Last edited by SunDance; 05-20-2019 at 05:28 AM.

  9. The Following User Says Thank You to SunDance For This Useful Post:

    janedoe (05-20-2019)

  10. #6
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    8,136
    Thanked: 5108
    I have read of scams where people list houses they don't own for rent and collect deposits from trusting folk who rent (usually a vacation rental) sight unseen. This is done entirely on the internet sometimes so your friend could have happened to use search terms that brought up your house. I suppose you could search yourself, good to know if some criminal is saying they'll rent out your house but it could be down by now. Today is our Victoria Day holiday in Canada, the unofficial start to summer. We should be getting such scams coming to light soon. There have been tales of whole families showing up a house, ready to move in for a week, only to find an unhappy home owner thwarting them. Just think if the home owner hadn't happened to be there, they might have broken in. Of course it would be nice if your friend replied to you.
    Hidden Content

    Castilleja's Dubhgall Oban, the Black Stranger of The Little Bay
    Oct. 15, 2007 - June 13, 2021
    Oxtongue Rapids Park. Oct. 2019 Hidden Content

  11. #7
    Senior Dog
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Ellicott City, MD
    Posts
    6,626
    Thanked: 3641
    Quote Originally Posted by Snowshoe View Post
    I have read of scams where people list houses they don't own for rent and collect deposits from trusting folk who rent (usually a vacation rental) sight unseen. This is done entirely on the internet sometimes so your friend could have happened to use search terms that brought up your house. I suppose you could search yourself, good to know if some criminal is saying they'll rent out your house but it could be down by now. Today is our Victoria Day holiday in Canada, the unofficial start to summer. We should be getting such scams coming to light soon. There have been tales of whole families showing up a house, ready to move in for a week, only to find an unhappy home owner thwarting them. Just think if the home owner hadn't happened to be there, they might have broken in. Of course it would be nice if your friend replied to you.
    I'd heard of that...seems like I remember Craigslist being involved. The first thing I did after replying to her was Google my address. Nothing except the normal type of house listings by redfin, trulia, etc. and all indicating, correctly, that my house wasn't on the market in any way. I hadn't considered that sort of thing for this...didn't recall this till I read your post...hmmmmm……

    I'm leaning toward confusion on some/many levels. I think that's a distinct possibility. Until some family shows up on my doorstep, that is....

  12. #8
    Senior Dog
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Ellicott City, MD
    Posts
    6,626
    Thanked: 3641
    We're going for confusion here...this actually adds to some general observations over the past year or so.

    Response was "turned around on your street...thought I saw a for sale/rent sign...must belong to neighbor...didn't look at house number". Plausible unless you know the positioning of the signs/my house and the fact that my house is a lot different from the others, is the only one with a hedge, and she has been to it innumerable times. And she specified rent in her first email and none of the signs mentions rent. Perhaps mentioning sale/rent now is because I'd said there were two for sale on the street.

    But unless she's covering something up with this actually shaky explanation, at least she wasn't "stalking" my house.

    The horse has died...we'll let it rest. (didn't we used to have an icon for beating a dead horse? I miss the old icons.)

  13. #9
    Senior Dog janedoe's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    New England
    Posts
    5,095
    Thanked: 1922
    Quote Originally Posted by SunDance View Post
    No. Our property wasn't listed anywhere and there's no "for rent" sign anywhere on our street. The two "for sale" signs aren't close to the front of our house/driveway. (if she was on our street for some reason which also makes no logical sense) If you Google my address, house info comes up but "not for sale".

    I can appreciate what you're saying...but it doesn't seem to apply. And if she was just checking addresses in general, she probably would have stuck to her own street or streets closer to her own (or houses more the size of her own)...I think. I don't know...nothing seems to stick.

    I just think it's weird. For many reasons, actually.

    Oh, and for what it's worth....I don't really care if she was just being nosy. But she isn't someone I consider to be nosy...just the opposite, actually...so it's strange. I was hoping someone here would say, "oh, you know, I do stuff like that because....." and then I'd have a reason. I can't even figure out why she'd care about my house in the first place, though, and so it's striking me as strange.
    That's just passive aggressive then. I did have a neighbor talk to me like that when I brought our stuff back from Tucson in a UHaul. I took great pleasure in informing here that we were moved in more permanently than before. That was a situation where people had assume that they would snap up the property when my mother in law passed. Lovely people.

  14. #10
    House Broken
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    246
    Thanked: 158
    I might look up neighbors real estate to compare taxes with our house. Our town is slow about readjusting values for additions and outdoor buildings. We have the highest taxes on our street, wish we didn't, but we do.

  15. The Following User Says Thank You to Marmot For This Useful Post:

    SunDance (05-23-2019)

 



Not a Member of the Labrador Retriever Chat Forums Yet?
Register for Free and Share Your Labrador Retriever Photos

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •