This Stinks

When I first heard the creator of a new website, called "rottenneighbor.com", speak about his new concept at a news interview, I thought that perhaps his idea had merit. He's just a young guy from California who wants home buyers to be able to have a place to check out the potential neighbors before taking the step of buying a home and then possibly being stuck with a loud, messy or obnoxious neighbor.

Home buyers can check school performance, the sex offender registry and home values, why not their neighbors?

Well...here's the thing about human nature: It's riddled with ugly vices, such as envy, prejudice, jealousy, spitefulness and the like.

After checking out the website, it's easy to see that it's giving a platform to every stereotype, persecution and slander imaginable. The site is open to any gripe without fact checking:

"-There's some ugly polish nerd boys and all they do is play video games and watch anime all day..."

-"german non citizen.she hates america..."

-"tax cheat!"

Neatly labeled homes on a map reveal mostly anonymous accusations pinpointed to an exact address.

The website likes to see itself as a real estate search engine: 

-ABOUT US:RottenNeighbor.com is here to help. It's the first real estate search engine of its kind, helping you find troublesome neighbors before you sign the paperwork on your new house, condo or apartment. RottenNeighbor is the largest site anywhere in the world covering the neighbor space, and we're certain you'll agree that the value it offers is unmatched anywhere else!

I don't know about the value being unmatched. I can think of other venues that offer a similar value.

What bothers me is that the site makes its money from advertisers, and specifically real estate-related advertisers; among them, realtor.com and homegain.com. I find it sad that our industry would link itself with this type of platform.

I want my buyer clients to be able to check out the neighborhood they buy into and I encourage them to conduct neighborhood reviews. Unlike rottenneighbor.com, the schools sites, sex offender registry, or home values sites are based on statistics and officially recorded information, not rumor, slander and innuendos. That type of registry has no value in my eyes whatsoever.

Sandy Nelson
Realtor for Olympia area real estate
www.sandynelsonrealestate.com