Monday, May 07, 2007

The mysterious power of a real estate sign

Once a real estate "for sale" sign goes up in front of your house, you are then subject to all of the weird things that go along with selling a house publicly.

For instance, strangers walking around your yard with mobile phones and/or notepads. Lisa came home to see such a person leaving our backyard (which is fenced off and behind a shut gate).

The neighbors act strangely, too. Our neighbor diagonally across the street has never uttered a word to either of us in the six years we've been in the house. As I'm finishing up cutting the front lawn Saturday morning, she crosses the street and begins asking the familiar questions: what is the asking price, how big, how many rooms, etc. She then asks for a tour of the house and begins walking towards the door! I told her the baby was sleeping (which he was), and she said the tour could wait.

So does a real estate sign give people an excuse to be rude? Manners are thrown out the window? Evidently!

However, not all of our neighbors are rude. The neighbor directly across the street cuts his lawn each Saturday and he usually moves both cars in front of our house. I don't have any problem with this; he is friendly and the cars don't bother either or us. But the last two Saturdays, he parked his cars in front of another house -- just so he wouldn't block our For Sale sign.

So there is hope for humanity.

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