Why did the real estate agent cross the road?
To have a chat with Gladys Kravitz.
For those of you who have no idea who I'm talking about, Gladys Kravitz was a mortal homemaker who lived across the street from Samantha, Darrin and Tabitha Stevens in the hit series Bewitched.
During many of the shows, Gladys could be seen peeking out (or in) a window, trying to figure out what was going on in the Stevens' household. Basically, Gladys was playing the part of (and very well, I might add) the nosy neighbor.
Nosy neighbors can be a pain in the booty if they happen to be yours, but if they live near a home for sale they can be the absolute best source of neighborhood information available. Not all homes have an endless parade of witches and warlocks for entertainment, but what about these seemingly innocent disclosures/statements/questions that come out of the neighbors' mouth?
- Do you know if all the termites were killed when they tented the house?
- Poor Mr. Smith, he dropped dead in his living room right after that last earthquake.
- The washer and dryer were moved to the garage shortly after the washer flooded the house.
- Did they tell you about the leak they had during that last doozy of a storm?
- LOL, their youngest kid was playing in the attic and fell right through the sheet rock!
- The CC&R's prohibit livestock, so they never let the pigs out of the house.
- I guess they didn't like the slider near the fireplace, so they moved it over three feet.
- No, no, that used to be a garage.
- I'm just saying, you might want to get the ________________ checked out.
So the moral of this story is, if you want to find out as much as you can about a home for sale:
- Read the seller disclosures from front to back
- Have inspections done
- Check building plans and permits
- And most importantly, do what I do. Cross the road and have a chat with Gladys Kravitz
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