When In Doubt – Call Your Realtor

Every now and again, I get a really interesting phone call. This morning I got one from Stacy (not her real name) asking if I sold a house at 1234 Oak St in Ashburn (not the real address). She was really interested to know if the seller was Bob Jones (not his real name).

It turns out that Stacy had met this man online and for some reason good old Bob’s story didn’t smell right. Because of this she felt it might be wise to do some investigating. Luckily for her, she did. In their conversations he said he had owned this house with his wife (who died) and after four years they sold it. This was kind of impossible as the real owners bought it new from the builder in 2014 and then sold it in 2016.

As we were talking, I asked if she had checked the Loudoun County tax records to see if he owned something else in the area. Turns out he doesn’t.

Needless to say, she was really glad that she decided to give me a call to get her question answered. It seems Bob has got some explaining to do.

The one big take away that I got from this conversation, is that everyone should take advantage of their friendly Realtor and reach out when they have a question about home ownership. We also have access to the county tax records and can quickly tell you the current owner along with the previous couple of owners (most of the time).

Like I have often said, “I’m here to help – just give me a call or send an email.”

Stay safe out there.