What a Scam – My House is Not For Sale

PurpleLights_7230, originally uploaded by carolsLittleWorld.

There’s this new (maybe not new but new to me!) scam running around my neighborhood and, I must confess, I don’t like it one bit.

It started, I think, last year, when one of my neighbors came home to find a “For Sale” sign on her front yard. She thought it curious but just figured that somehow it must have been a mistake, like maybe somebody had placed it in the wrong yard, and so she just ignored it and went about her business. Well, after a few days, nobody moved it and nosy neighbors (like me!) started asking, “Are you going to move? Have you put your house on the market?” Because of the hassle, she decided to call the real estate agency in question and ask them to remove the sign because it had (obviously) been placed in the wrong yard (or so she thought!)

So, she called them but, when they answered the phone, they said something like, “Oh right. We’ll take care of that. Sorry. By the way, while we have you on the telephone…we noticed your house is very attractive and has a great deal of curb appeal. Did you know the prices the market these days are doing quite well and, based upon estimates, we think you could get ….. dollars for your house. Have you thought about selling?” Turns out the fake sign was not so much a fake but more a ploy to get people to call them and, when they call asking them to remove the sign, instead they get a high pressure “you really want to sell us your house cheap now, don’t you?” unexpected sales call.

What a scam! What a fraud!

Luckily, this scam didn’t last too long, as they just hit a house or two and managed to miss my house (Ha! Guess I do not have enough “curb appeal” or whatever.) Unfortunately, they are back again. The scam crowd appears to be back and doing this again! Maybe it’s because the market for houses in Texas has jumped so much recently and we’re now all reading articles in the paper about a housing shortage and whatnot, I don’t know, but I do know the scam real estate agents appear to be back and in full swing. Oh the horror!

I have already decided that, should they happen to put a sign up in my yard, why, I’m not going to call them, no, I’m not. Instead, I’m going to steal their sign and make it into some kind of art project. I’ll put wax on it. I’ll photograph it. Heck, I don’t care if I use it for practice welding assignments down at my local community college but, somehow, some way, I’m going to steal their precious little sign. And, of course, not call them back. What nerve! Come on, shady real estate agents, I dare you….give me a sign!

I should also like to point out, at this time, that the agency in question is not one of the “real” agencies we all know about (like Century 21 or ERA or any of the established agencies. Those folks are all decent and hard-working and legitimate, I’m sure.) This was for some fly-by-night outfit with a name that sounds almost legit but isn’t really. Giving real estate agents a bad name too, I would suppose. What nerve!

Oh, and it goes without saying really but, should you happen upon this blog to find some odd looking artwork featuring a real estate sign, well, now you know what happened.

Until next sign….