Face it, if you are reading this site you have a passion for real estate. Now, with the internet making so much information available, you can find out all of the information on what is happening in your neighborhood by doing a property search online. Many newspapers and real estate agents also put this information out there.

So when you are looking to see who bought the Jone’s house up the block, it is there on the internet. Check the local property tax web site. Check the towns newspapers site. Typically they will have all the information on the sale. Nancy Shohert West of the Boston Globe has an interesting article on her own voyeuristic habits online. Funny article as it is very true. I have been caught in this trap before.

‘So your next-door neighbors moved across town, and a couple from Westford bought their house!” I say to my friend Lisa, having not seen her for a few weeks. “How great for them that they received their asking price. Have you met the new people yet?”

Lisa looks understandably confused. “I didn’t know you knew my next-door neighbors.”Oops, busted again. Here’s my dirty little secret: I compulsively read real estate transfers.

When people catch me at this — any time I accidentally let comments like the one above slip out — they look appalled. The assumption is that I’m just a busybody who wants to know how much everyone has paid for their house. But it’s really not about the dollar amount. Reading the real estate transfers gives me all kinds of intriguing information about the people around me. I find out that a retired couple my parents used to play tennis with have bought a condo in Acton, and the brother of my best friend’s seventh-grade boyfriend just moved with his wife to Littleton. via The Boston Globe.

Related posts:

1. 1 in 3 Buyers Now Come From The Internet
2. Boston Child Predator A Real Estate Agent? Not Anymore
3. Boston Real Estate Sales Coming Back – Are Yours?