WHO would be taking pictures of our house?

[AKL_Megs]

For the past couple of days, someone keeps coming by and taking pictures of our house.

The first time I noticed was yesterday. The house was closed up but I just happened to be walking through the living room and saw a car parked on the street in front of our house. I was curious, so I watched the man. He was IN his car, looking at papers, and then got out quickly, walked to the end of our driveway, and snapped a picture, then quickly got back in his car and drove away when he saw me looking at him.

Today, it was nice out, so we had the curtains all the way drawn, and the front door open. I was in the living room with DH when we saw a car slowly drive past our house. The driver, a DIFFERENT man, rolled down his window and snapped a picture as he passed, then drove off.

I am just wondering who might be wanting pictures of our house. DH seems to think that it may be an appraiser taking pictures of comparables, since we were a recent sale. But TWO different people in TWO days?

I am a little nervous, since I am home alone tonight.

Anyone have any ideas who these two people might be?

 

[happygirl]

For the past couple of days, someone keeps coming by and taking pictures of our house.

The first time I noticed was yesterday. The house was closed up but I just happened to be walking through the living room and saw a car parked on the street in front of our house. I was curious, so I watched the man. He was IN his car, looking at papers, and then got out quickly, walked to the end of our driveway, and snapped a picture, then quickly got back in his car and drove away when he saw me looking at him.

Today, it was nice out, so we had the curtains all the way drawn, and the front door open. I was in the living room with DH when we saw a car slowly drive past our house. The driver, a DIFFERENT man, rolled down his window and snapped a picture as he passed, then drove off.

I am just wondering who might be wanting pictures of our house. DH seems to think that it may be an appraiser taking pictures of comparables, since we were a recent sale. But TWO different people in TWO days?

I am a little nervous, since I am home alone tonight.

Anyone have any ideas who these two people might be?

I would guess someone is building a new house and like the style of your house.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Could be comps--could be someone liking your colors or something about your curb appeal and wanting to replicate it.

If it happens again, get a tag number and notify authorities just in case.

 

[DisneyJules]

This happened to my parents a couple of times, as it turned out, it was a real estate business. They sent them a picture of their house that was laminated with a letter asking us if they were interested in selling. I thought this was a little strange, hehe

 

[golfgal]

I would guess appraisers as well. It could be your insurance company as well. If you see anyone else, I would call the non-emergency police line and report what you have seen.

 

[dislaney]

Our insurance company did this but only one person came to take the pictures. I kind of freaked out at first until I found out who it was though. Hope you find out who it is.

 

[4forMe]

It could be people trying to file an appeal of their real estate taxes.

We did this 3 years ago and had to have pictures of 3-5 homes in our area as comps. I remember feeling so uncomfortable taking the pics! I tried to go in the middle of the day and middle of the work week hoping no one would be home to see me.

 

[Kathi OD]

We had the same thing happen to us, about 4 months after we moved into this house. I never found out what the deal was. Our house is a custom-built, in a neighborhood of custom homes, and I know there isn't another one like it in our town, so a realtor trying to come up with a comp is out.

However, a neighbor wanted to put a portico on their house and I know she drove around taking pictures of houses that had porticos she liked. After that, I figured that what was going on, someone liked our house and took a picture of it.

 

[luvmy3]

Assessors.

 

[happygirl]

The city I live in assessors sp? drive cars that say county assessors

 

[WDWorBUST]

My bet would be one of the following:

realtor
tax assessor
insurance agent
someone who likes the look of your house.....we were adding a front porch to our older home and was trying to figure out the best way to do the roofline so I looked for houses with similar rooflines but with front porches and took pics. I never even thought about how weird it might seem.

 

[MIGrandma]

We had a guy taking pictures of our house, to be used in re-appraising the house (he did the same thing with all the other houses in our area) for taxes. Apparently the local government thinks the houses are appraised too low. I guess they're not getting enough money in taxes, so they'll be raising them, I'm sure.

But maybe that's what they're doing with your house? Maybe they think the property taxes you pay are too low.

 

[luvmy3]

The city I live in assessors sp? drive cars that say county assessors

Last month my neighbor across the street called me and asked if I had seen the man taking pics of her house. The car was not marked in any way, turned out to be the assessors.

 

[ReneeA]

I'm guessing assessors, too.

Since you live in the same metro area as I do, then hope for your taxes to be going down. I was happily surprised to see that ours are dropping by 25% this year. It stinks that my house is worth less than I bought it for 13 years ago, but at least I don't have to pay taxes on some over-inflated number that doesn't exist anymore.

 

[luvmy3]

I'm guessing assessors, too.

Since you live in the same metro area as I do, then hope for your taxes to be going down. I was happily surprised to see that ours are dropping by 25% this year. It stinks that my house is worth less than I bought it for 13 years ago, but at least I don't have to pay taxes on some over-inflated number that doesn't exist anymore.

Our's went down $40000 and the difference was barely noticable in our taxes

 

[mickeyboat]

I am guessing an appraiser. Since your home was recently sold, they can use it as a comp to help prove the value of a home someone wants to purchase / get a mortgage for now. In our appraisal there were pictures of the comps they used.

 

[clh2]

I would guess appraisers as well. It could be your insurance company as well. If you see anyone else, I would call the non-emergency police line and report what you have seen.

I called the non-emergency number when this happened to me. I was feeling like CRAP the day this happened, had a 6 month old DD at the time, and this really freaked me out, because the guy was lost in our subdivision (I clearly noticed him when I was coming home.) Then all of a sudden, his car was behind my car. When I was getting DD out of the car - he snapped a couple of photos. Trust me - this was a very creepy feeling. Very creepy.

So - I called the police. They were really very nice, came out, rode through the subdivision etc. They said it was probably somehow related to a real estate transaction, since we had been in our home about 7 months at that time. Sure enough...about 2 weeks later, a home in our subdivision was put up for sale.

My guess - to the OP - more than 1 realtor may be in the running for a potential listing...which is why there may be more than one person taking pictures.

 

[CathrynRose]

It was me. Sorry.

 

[paintnolish]

I would guess insurance/asesseors, too. We had something similar happen right after we had moved in. I was napping on the couch after unpacking all night. I had on a tiny tank top and boxer shorts, and I hear my dogs go crazy. Some guy was in the yard taking pics. We didn't have anything over our patio door yet, so he saw that I saw him and came up to explain himself...all while I was in tiny pjs! Maybe I made an old man's day. I don't know!

 

[ReneeA]

Our's went down $40000 and the difference was barely noticable in our taxes

It's so not fair!