Real Estate Deflate Part 2

by Brenda Roger

I’ve done some investigation into the house on the corner. In my last blog, I shared my theories on the uninhabited suburban house on my street. Since then, the magic of technology has allowed me an opportunity to tour the house.

Last week, there was a u-haul parked out front. When I drove by, the door of the u-haul was open and a man I have never seen before was loading things into the back. I saw one of those generic vintage framed posters of a liquor ad, and some other items that immediately screamed, “props!” So I had a theory that the house was staged by a company hired by the realtor.

Another kind of woman would have walked three doors up and talked to the man in the u-haul, but I read mystery novels and I know what happens to that woman! So I had to turn to technology to find some answers.

The real estate sign says “sale pending”, so the house must be under agreement because it was not on the multi-list. I had to search the name of my street, which led me to the house number, which led me directly to the link for the virtual tour! Why didn’t I think of that before?

Luckily, David and I toured this exact house before we bought ours. It was a spec house by our builder, so it was our best guess at the quality of his work. In this case, it gave me a basis for comparison in my neb-nose scheme.

Now the juicy part…. the house looked uninhabited. The furniture looked staged, indeed. Every room on the virtual tour was immaculate. There wasn’t a single indication that anyone lived there for the past three years. The only thing on the wall was the poster I saw in the u-haul. There are glass shelves in niches on the first floor of the house and they were completely empty. The only sign of life was a computer in one of the bedrooms. It was a whole set-up with a printer.

I think the computer was the way that the people using it as a safe house stayed in touch with the underground network. Not that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it or anything……