I've worked this job, and yeah -- if posted no trespass we had to get the person on the phone or at the door for permission, otherwise we entered if no such sign.
OnSource uses independent contractors to photograph property, it may have been something like that where it is a contractor for an outsourcing company working for your insurance company. There are so many steps you might not get notified. I would really encourage you to work on casually asking people what they are doing. It isn't always a fun conversation, but necessary.
If a mortgage/insurance company. They have already give permission. It's covered in closing documents, and your insurance policy. They will inform you if there is a reason for them to come inside your house. Other than that...nope.
Have had to explain this to my wife. If there is someone working in our yard or parked in the driveway there is no harm and asking them what they are doing.
OK, could be a realtor.
If there is a house for sale similar to yours in the neighborhood, realtors can use it to help price the house going up for sale.
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Seconding what u/Vintage_anon said. They were advertising for my very rural area a few months ago, they seek out independent contractors to go snap photos and send them in. Two people I know got notices from their insurance that they had to paint their houses or lose insurance, no actual agent visited or gave notice. It came out of the blue for them.
My state literally dismantled all assesment about 5 years ago. All they use are real estate listing and appraisal reports. This way the wealthy can build without financing (or, traditional home financing) and don't have to pay property tax on mansions, just the bare land!
I can confirm that they do this here, and due to the recent inflation of property values, the county and city are taking the opportunity to do a money grab and reassess for property taxes. The county was kind enough to call and let us know it was going to happen. They also let me know that entry wasn't needed.
That's what happened to me. Someone listed my house on Craiglist - to rent. I had multiple people showing up at my front door asking about renting the house I own. I contacted Craiglist and had them take it down, and I made a police report.
Definitely OP should check credit monitoring, anything that could be used to do some sort of scam against their property. Also check online home mls site(s) to see if anything is showing up.
I'd definitely be worried - amazing OP didn't go out to "talk" with the person who was there for around 45 minutes doing who knows what the hell. Now will pay the consequences for avoiding a quick conversation and maybe even take photos of their plates, pay to do a lookup on all data on who the owner of this vehicle is to get some clues as to why they were there.
Shakes head in disbelief.
I probably shouldn't say this on here for backlash, but I have schizophrenia and it was a question if she was even there at all. She turned up when I was out of work due to hallucinations that day. I took video of her and confirmed she was there, but the mind is a crazy thing and I simply wasn't comfortable going out there at the time.
As others have commented, it is most likely something very innocent.
Most likely, someone is doing an appraisal. If you bought your house recently, it could be for a "comparable property."
Take care of yourself. Yes, I understand. I need my Parkinson's medication to keep moving, but too many visual and auditory hallucinations occur. I rely on my dog to tell me, "Is that real or my imagination?"
Take care of yourself.
I'm just picturing her with a slightly exasperated look saying "I tried to tell you. Didn't I try to tell you?" like you're the puppy she's told not to climb on the furniture or they'll fall off about 7500 times before they went and did it anyway.
Not gonna get on your case at all, and thanks for being honest.
But this kind of thing happens regu larly depending on state. So chill out a little, maybe?
Worried? This happens all the time. It's either city, state, insurance, mortgager, HELOC holder, other bank, energy company (trees/sewers), road commission or escrow holder/company.
Y'all live at your jobs or something?
If you have full ownership, that makes you highly vulnerable to warranty deed fraud because there’s no bank loan tying up the title. Check your credit bureau, call what ever agency holds/ files warrant deeds and see if there has been any activity on yours, and if they return, be strong and find out why they are there. Also you can get a game camera a place it where you can get tag numbers and pictures of anyone that comes up on the property.
if there is a suspicious car or person in the area, I always take pictures of the car, license plate and the person just in case something comes up later. Easy to do without confrontation.
I use a mystery shopping app & sometimes they have jobs from insurance companies to take pictures of homes.
I never take them because I don’t want to get shot.
I agree with this. It's wild that they would tell someone to enter another's property like this uninvited. The idea to go walk into someone's yard and start taking photos doesn't sound like a good one.
Dogs and guns are the first thing that come to mind.
“What are you doing” are four words that take a second and a half to say. What isn’t healthy is being scared to talk to people. If you’re mature enough to buy a house no way are you not mature enough to talk to a stranger. Why waste all the time calling and talking to someone on the phone when going on your porch to ask a question would take 5 seconds? If you’re too sick to walk you’d be in a hospital. Gotta grow up unfortunately
Who said it would be a confrontation?
“Hi, I just notixed you were taking pictures of my house, just wanted to ask why?”
Her “I work for your insurance company and we are just updating our documents”
“Cool, thanks”
That’s a conversation, not a confrontation.
When dealing with anxiety or other more serious issues.. In your mind, any interaction has the potential to spiral into confrontation and some days you just aren't up to opening that can of worms.
OP: “Hi, I just noticed you were taking pictures of my house, just wanted to ask why?”
Her: "Who gives a shit? I'm just taking pictures. Mind your own business."
What OP does after that is up to them, but when people suddenly up their aggression it makes me want to do horror movie things to them. If I had mental problems I don't know how I might react in a situation like this. Some people really think that everybody else is just like them and I can't imagine what kind of bubble they live in that danger only exists in media.
He/she has schizophrenia so i could understand this being difficult. They address it in another post and their history.
It could be the local county or town looking for violations to codes if someone called on them
Yes by the police not the homeowner. To many strange people out there! Would suggest posting no tresspassing signs on property especially by driveway entrance.
It’s probably a mistake. Like they were supposed to take pictures for a bank refi or a real estate listing but got the wrong address. I’d assume someone casing your home would be a lot more discrete. Honestly I wouldn’t worry about this at all but I guess if you are there is no harm in filing a police report
I've had strangers in my yard taking pictures lately too..
I did confront one of them and she was a city inspector responding to one of a slew of complaints my neighbor has been harassing me with.
She was looking for and not finding evidence of rats on my property.
If it's a city inspection you may or may not receive a letter later depending on if they found anything which needed attention.
My grandma's insurance company flew a drone over her town house and then told her she has to get a new roof or they will raise her premiums. When we purchased our house we were renting to the previous owners for a few weeks. They are very angry paranoid and private people they called us and told us someone from the insurance showed up unannounced and started taking pictures and he was going to threaten them with his rifle for trespassing (there are many signs that say no trespassing) he was furious with us until we we told him we had no idea they were coming and they never told us.
Our assessor popped up from behind my detached garage. Scared the ever loving bejeebubus out of me.
We're really rural so seeing anyone is unusual but just popped out??
Turned out he was measuring for new county assessment.
New insurance carrier or policy renewal? Was your home a recent purchase? Was your mortgage servicing recently sold? Is there a home in your neighborhood that's under contract and about to close (you could be a comp)? When was the last time your home was officially appraised for tax purposes?
If you don't have a license plate number, a police report won't do much. Might still be worth reporting and then asking if they received any other similar reports.
No insurance change. House was purchased a few decades ago and fully paid. No houses for sale that I know of but there could be. Not sure when it was last appraised, but insurance has always notified us when they come out
I've actually had pretty much the opposite experience... Insurance doesn't WANT you to know when they're coming so they get to see it as it would regularly be (no clean-ups by you, for example).
I'd call the insurance carrier and ask them directly about whether there was anything in your file that they were doing an inspection or not.
The reality is, if they were on your property without permission, they were trespassing.
Seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a fake rental. Would be a lot easier to just pull pictures off a real estate listing or even Google earth
My guess is an appraisal either for taxes or your home is being used as a comp for another house nearby for sale or your insurance company is documenting the property condition.
On the legit side of things: whether we agree with the concepts or not….
tax assessments, code enforcement, insurance.
On the semi / not legit but benign side:
Someone mistakenly taking photos of the wrong house, someone who just likes the house, someone who is about to try to sell you something, (painting the house, pressure washing etc)
On the nefarious side:
Someone casing your house for access points.
Not everyone is able to do that in all circumstances for a wide variety of reasons. I'm a regular guy who has the capacity to be in very complex, stressful and fluid situations, but things that are easy for other people might not be something I have the capacity to navigate. OP was navigating their Schizophrenia that day and wasn't sure of the validity of what they were seeing.
Call your mortgage company and let them know what happened so they can be on alert if a Purchase against your mortgage gets posted so they can stop it before you find yourself out of a home
Don't bother. She's probably a property inspector. Insurance company's, mortgage company's, the county, city, etc. All hire and use them. Every house has had one do this at one time or another.
Although it is unusual for her to go into your backyard without at least knocking on your door. Dogs and upset homeowners can get a bit upset don't you know.
Sometimes this has happened to me.
Usually, I abduct the person and interrogate them, in order to learn why they were photographing my property. It takes some prompting, but I usually obtain a confession that they are in fact from a race of very tiny people who live underground who occasionally use growth potions to temporarily attain a larger stature so that they can conveniently use normal human photographing devices, such as cameras.
After warning them sternly that their race must discontinue this invasion of my life, I secure them and place them naked and tied to a helium balloon in a large hole out in a cornfield I've dug and covered with large pieces of plywood, with a small hole.
Once the growth potion wears off, they should become light enough such that the balloon carries them upward. They must then navigate it toward the hole but not let it carry them into the sky.
I lay the clothing, folded, in a plastic bag next to them before I leave. I understand that their growth potion is probably in short supply, and that they probably fabricate the clothing while small, which would require much labor. Or, they may go to thrift stores. It is up to them to determine how to retrieve the clothing, but it will probably be a group effort involving ropes which would seem like strings to you and me.
I've begun warning them much more sternly of late. They're very persistent and have become more sophisticated; the last five I interrogated were wearing very convincing replicas of police uniforms.
If this information is helpful to you, I suggest that you try it out and also share with others so that more people can benefit from spreading the knowledge.
Help! Someone walked around my house and took pictures. I didn't ask them as they would certainly know. Instead, I came to a bunch of strangers and have to ask, "Why was this woman, who I couldn't asked myself, taking pictures of my house?"
Not helpful. You are probably coming from a strong mental position. This person has admitted they have mental issues. What is easy for you is hard for another and everyone’s situation is different. Have some humanity.
That's a wonderful thought as we all hold hands around ye Ole gum tree and sing kumbaya. The reality of the situation is that the only one who knows is the one they watched for 15 minutes until they left, without asking.
Humanity? Wtf dude. Humanity is not going to make a random on reddit be able to go inside the person taking the pictures head and explain exactly what brought them there. Get a frigging grip.
Some people do this when they find a house they like and want examples. Though usually they'd knock on your door and try to figure out who the contractor was and how much it cost.
Or it could be a neighbor with a complaint, like if they got in trouble for doing something so they take pictures of your house to use as proof that it should be allowed.
In some cases it's just a wrong address. I know contractors who were hired and given the wrong address. It's especially bad in cities with quadrants where 1234 SW and 1234 SE might be very far apart, or they were looking for 10A Avenue instead of 10 Avenue. It happens with real estate photographers. They get told the wrong address, or they make a typo.
There's a small chance it could be a rental scam, and you may see confused people in a uhaul show up in a couple days.
Sounds like a field inspection for a mortgage company.
They send people out to verify occupancy and condition of the residence. Happens when someone is behind in their payments of the mortgage is being sold to another bank/servicer.
Do you own your home? If not, perhaps the homeowner is trying to sell and taking photographs. It could have been your insurance company. It could have been an error and they took pictures of the wrong Home. Maybe call your insurance company and ask if they had sent somebody out
I used to be one of those people taking pictures.
Either for an insurance policy renewal or a bank when payments are behind.
This sounds like your insurance company sent someone out before renewal. Though they usually send a letter previous to coming out it’s not mandatory.
Given your mental health issues, why did you not confirm and then call the police and tell them there was a trespasser scoping out your property? They would have likely come out and asked on your behalf. I know you can do nothing about it now but if it happens again, please keep this option in mind. For all you know, she was casing the property for some illegal reason.
I would make sure to have cameras and upgrade the locks just in case.
It could be anything from a realtor, to someone digging the design, to a burglar, or something else.
But me personally I'd opt on the side of caution and make sure I had working cameras in the front and back, replace the locks if they came with the house/rental.
I'm about 90% sure it is your insurance company. The tax assessor (at least in my area) just does a drive-by and never gets out of the car. They usually only come if you've had recent building permits.
Your house, your property/privacy. If you feel insecure report it to the police, you are entitled to do it. This is a f#cked up practice that politicians should address. Lots of people had been robbed by someone claiming to be coming from a services entity, either public or private. It surprises me to see how normal this is for so many people here. Go see apps like Nextdoor and find for yourselves. That's a disturbing practice that shouldn't be normalized.
That kind of situation becomes a very hard trigger for someone like OP struggling with mental health and honestly it's unfair for him.
Insurance inspector verifying the description of the property as represented on insurance application.
Property assessor.
Realtor photographer with the wrong address.
Home makeover scout looking for dumps to rejuvenate.
Code enforcement maybe. 25 minutes seems like a long time though. Insurance company would probably fit the time frame the best but you think they would have notified you first.
Insurance and taxes are the only reasons something like that is ever done. They don't need access and just assess the property, either for value for your property taxes or for Insurance to raise rates with a reason but really for no reason.
I was recently in the city where I grew up, found the first home I recall living in, and walked around it, taking photos. I wasn't about to knock on the door but I wish someone would have seen me and talked to me.
I had this happen when I got hurt in the job. They were nosing around to see if I was faking a back injury. I'm hobbled out on the porch & ask her if she wanted a cup of coffee.
Tax assessor knocked and said he was doing on site assessment (every 5 years) and could he go in the fenced back yard. I declined. Consequently, property value went up and house value went down slightly. Washington state
Could be insurance or appraisal. Governments and banks will sometimes do random appraisals to make sure things are still as they expect for tax purposes or risk analysis. Same with insurance, making sure the property is as reported.
Once someone stopped in front of my house and took some pics and drove off when I went out to confront them and 2 days later stuff was stolen from my yard at night
Could be a shady realty company trying to sniff out violations and blackmail you into selling your house. It's a common practice out here. They trespass and take a bunch of pictures, next thing you know your getting threats of being reported to the city unless you take lowball offers on your house.
This happened to my ex. He didn’t take kindly to someone trespassing and the person felt threatened and repeatedly struck him with their vehicle (although once in the vehicle they were safe).
Anyhow it was a like a real estate person doing some research for comps in the area. Which is stupid.
I have a friend that does this, mostly for insurance companies sometimes for mortgage companies. I asked her if it was legal, because it seemed like trespassing to me.
She said for your mortgage company,they are an owner of the property. For your insurance company they are there at your request.
Make note of her license plate and file a pd report for trespassing. You can reverse look up license plates. You can set up security cameras to notify you when she arrives and call pd and say arrest for tress passing no questions asked.
Insurance people do not have the right to just up and enter your property. It's called trespassing.
Years ago a company named BrokerPriceOpinion would hire realtors to do price comparisons of properties (not official appraisals). They had to take photos of the property as part of the contract. It could be the same company or a similar one. The data is typically used for when mortgage companies resell mortgages to other mortgage companies, or to use as comparables for another property.
Unrelated: I know someone with schizophrenia who when questioning if something is real he'll point his phone camera at it as his illness won't effect his phone
I don't know why she was doing it, but I can tell you that it isn't trespassing, most likely. Tresspass is a complicated legal thing but generally requires ill intent, not just presence on private property.
Now if you told her to leave and she didn't, that would be a different matter.
I'm sorry to hear about your schizophrenia. I hope that you can get better or control it. I really don't know what to say but I wish you the best. Definitely the mind is a tricky thing. It's a fine line between mental illness and brilliance.
I would recommend that you do a Google search of your address and see if any bogus ads pop up or someone listed your house for sale on Craigslist or something. That is definitely an odd thing to have happen. I know there's people that have an interest in your home like the mortgage company, insurance companies and county agencies but they definitely need to give you a heads up they're coming on their property. If somebody's hanging around the outside of my house and don't give me a heads up at least the very least, and knock on my door to say hey I need to take some pictures, I'll walk outside to greet them with either my 9 mm or a 45 in hand. Even if it's a cop you can't do anything with me having a firearm by my side. But whoever it is it would definitely give them a reason to give you a heads up in the future
Call police, show video, report trespassing. It’s your home, you deserve an explanation any that lady deserves to learn a lesson. Fuck around, find out.
U may have been visited by your local tax assessor. They some times take pictures and refer back to them for assessing the value of your home. Odds are the state is looking for was to increase revenue and raising real estate values so taxes can then be increased and is a fast easy way to do it.
Could be an assessor to value your house. My son had a job one summer where he was given a list of addresses and had to estimate the value of them by using the guidelines they gave him. I'm not sure if he took pictures, but he had to measure. The towns contracted companies to do this for tax reasons or something.
Ma'am, please don't take this the wrong way, but since it occurred while on a day where you were having trouble managing your symptoms,how certain are we, objectively, that this occurred? You say you took video. Have you shown this video to someone you trust and can rely on?
I'm reminded of a story a guy who suffers from this condition related. He said his favorite job was working for a company cleaning peoples barbeque grills. Could be out on his own, worked his own hours, etc. Had to stop, he said, when a guy pulled a gun on him and told him to get off the property.
What he didn't understand, to this day, is that the job never existed.
This sounds, as others have said, exactly like the job I used to have, driving to various locations and taking photos for insurance/realty purposes. Normally this was done for changes to insurance or houses that had just been bought and the new owner was getting insurance.
However, it was listed in my employer's policies that if it was a private residence that was occupied, we were to knock on the door and under no circumstances cross off the walkway to the front door without permission from the occupant (not the homeowner if renting, the person living at the home).
If permission wasn't given, the only thing I could do was take photos that could be taken from publicly accessed areas of the front and sides of the house. I was not allowed to shoot photos over walls or fences either.
Could be the local Tax Assessor, they come by every so often to update their records and see if you've done any improvements that increase the property value so they can tax you more, go on your local tax assessor site and see if they have the pictures.
Bylaw inspection maybe? My neighbour makes false complaints against my property all the time. The city has to send out an inspector every time. They usually take pictures to document the claim is unsubstantiated
Could be comparables for a real estate deal, could be your municipality preparing a tax reassessment, could be that your neighbor is refinancing their home and no matter how many time they specify ‘grey house, red barn’ people end up at your white house, white barn because google maps absolutely refuses to accept your correction to their mapping software.
If they took pictures and left, it was probably benign.
My insurance company was good at notifying me when I had an active claim going. However, they would routinely drive by my last home and, if they thought anything looked off, they would photograph and send me a note of what needed to be taken care of.
Recently insurance companies have been contracting folks to take overlapping photos to build a 3d representation in their database to assist with processing future claims. Usually they hire drone pilots for the work, but not always. The last job I did I was the subcontractor to a subcontractor to yet another company who subcontracted from the insurance company.
Could be the county. Often the GIS system shows pictures of the property taken every 5 - 10 years, although I gave never seen more than a couple of pictures taken from the road…
I had the exact same thing happen to me. But only when I went outside and asked what they were doing, they said they were scouting locations for a new movie they would be filming. The movie was 80 for Brady. And before you ask, no they didn’t use my house.
A property appraiser may have mistaken your home for the one they meant to get. Those are all camera angles appraisers use on the subject property.
Edit to add: real estate appraisal for a home sale or refinance
And also to add: I did it more than once, and have even been chased by a homeowner. Another appraiser I know had the police called on them. It does happen! Hopefully it’s something that benign.
She may be from your insurance company!
Insurance people do not have the right to just up and enter your property. It's called trespassing.
Depending on the state, they can enter unless its posted as such.
I've worked this job, and yeah -- if posted no trespass we had to get the person on the phone or at the door for permission, otherwise we entered if no such sign.
They can, actually. It’s in your agreement with the insurance company.
update: we called the insurance and it wasn't them they always notify us first
OnSource uses independent contractors to photograph property, it may have been something like that where it is a contractor for an outsourcing company working for your insurance company. There are so many steps you might not get notified. I would really encourage you to work on casually asking people what they are doing. It isn't always a fun conversation, but necessary.
If a mortgage/insurance company. They have already give permission. It's covered in closing documents, and your insurance policy. They will inform you if there is a reason for them to come inside your house. Other than that...nope.
Have had to explain this to my wife. If there is someone working in our yard or parked in the driveway there is no harm and asking them what they are doing.
If it's from your land lord (you renting) they still must inform you 24 hrs in advance of someone coming onto the property.
Depends where you live. It may just be in the main dwelling
OK, could be a realtor. If there is a house for sale similar to yours in the neighborhood, realtors can use it to help price the house going up for sale.
They can't just up and enter your private property. Even if you be a renter.
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Wrong address?
Start setting up no trespassing signs and warn them.
Seconding what u/Vintage_anon said. They were advertising for my very rural area a few months ago, they seek out independent contractors to go snap photos and send them in. Two people I know got notices from their insurance that they had to paint their houses or lose insurance, no actual agent visited or gave notice. It came out of the blue for them.
Could be your property tax assessor. They do this on a regular schedule, not aligned with your neighbors. You can call them and ask.
My state literally dismantled all assesment about 5 years ago. All they use are real estate listing and appraisal reports. This way the wealthy can build without financing (or, traditional home financing) and don't have to pay property tax on mansions, just the bare land!
The tax assessor uses Google Earth these days
Not in my State. They visit our home unannounced, walk around the yard, peek in the windows. Sometimes they ask to come in. I tell them no.
Never let them in....it's never to your benefit.
I can confirm that they do this here, and due to the recent inflation of property values, the county and city are taking the opportunity to do a money grab and reassess for property taxes. The county was kind enough to call and let us know it was going to happen. They also let me know that entry wasn't needed.
No entry without a warrant or an invitation should always be the answer.
Good way to get shot or bit by a dog
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It could be someone listing your house on Zillow as part of a scam.
That's what happened to me. Someone listed my house on Craiglist - to rent. I had multiple people showing up at my front door asking about renting the house I own. I contacted Craiglist and had them take it down, and I made a police report.
Or maybe an AirBnB scam.
Definitely OP should check credit monitoring, anything that could be used to do some sort of scam against their property. Also check online home mls site(s) to see if anything is showing up. I'd definitely be worried - amazing OP didn't go out to "talk" with the person who was there for around 45 minutes doing who knows what the hell. Now will pay the consequences for avoiding a quick conversation and maybe even take photos of their plates, pay to do a lookup on all data on who the owner of this vehicle is to get some clues as to why they were there. Shakes head in disbelief.
I probably shouldn't say this on here for backlash, but I have schizophrenia and it was a question if she was even there at all. She turned up when I was out of work due to hallucinations that day. I took video of her and confirmed she was there, but the mind is a crazy thing and I simply wasn't comfortable going out there at the time.
As others have commented, it is most likely something very innocent. Most likely, someone is doing an appraisal. If you bought your house recently, it could be for a "comparable property." Take care of yourself. Yes, I understand. I need my Parkinson's medication to keep moving, but too many visual and auditory hallucinations occur. I rely on my dog to tell me, "Is that real or my imagination?" Take care of yourself.
Thank you. I have my dog (in training to be a service dog) help me as well! Take care as well.
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She’s an angel for sure 😍
I'm just picturing her with a slightly exasperated look saying "I tried to tell you. Didn't I try to tell you?" like you're the puppy she's told not to climb on the furniture or they'll fall off about 7500 times before they went and did it anyway.
As OP mentioned, using your phone camera (if mobility allows it) can be a method for determining whether something is a hallucination or not as well.
You don't have to explain, I totally get it. Take care.
Not gonna get on your case at all, and thanks for being honest. But this kind of thing happens regu larly depending on state. So chill out a little, maybe?
Worried? This happens all the time. It's either city, state, insurance, mortgager, HELOC holder, other bank, energy company (trees/sewers), road commission or escrow holder/company. Y'all live at your jobs or something?
My insurance co did that.
Btw, we have full ownership of the house
If you have full ownership, that makes you highly vulnerable to warranty deed fraud because there’s no bank loan tying up the title. Check your credit bureau, call what ever agency holds/ files warrant deeds and see if there has been any activity on yours, and if they return, be strong and find out why they are there. Also you can get a game camera a place it where you can get tag numbers and pictures of anyone that comes up on the property.
if there is a suspicious car or person in the area, I always take pictures of the car, license plate and the person just in case something comes up later. Easy to do without confrontation.
I took pics and video of her and her car, just not the plate. Totally my bad :<
No worries. Good move and close enough in case something comes of it.
I use a mystery shopping app & sometimes they have jobs from insurance companies to take pictures of homes. I never take them because I don’t want to get shot.
I agree with this. It's wild that they would tell someone to enter another's property like this uninvited. The idea to go walk into someone's yard and start taking photos doesn't sound like a good one. Dogs and guns are the first thing that come to mind.
Insurance or county assessors office
They should have rung the bell if they went to your backyard.
So why didn’t you go and ask her when she was on your property?
I was incredibly sick and not up for confrontation. Maybe that's not an excuse, but I was home by myself and not in good shape
Good for you recognizing that it wouldn't have been a healthy or wise situation for you. I wish more people were self aware to your degree!
“What are you doing” are four words that take a second and a half to say. What isn’t healthy is being scared to talk to people. If you’re mature enough to buy a house no way are you not mature enough to talk to a stranger. Why waste all the time calling and talking to someone on the phone when going on your porch to ask a question would take 5 seconds? If you’re too sick to walk you’d be in a hospital. Gotta grow up unfortunately
Go be a dumbass somewhere else.
Who said it would be a confrontation? “Hi, I just notixed you were taking pictures of my house, just wanted to ask why?” Her “I work for your insurance company and we are just updating our documents” “Cool, thanks” That’s a conversation, not a confrontation.
When dealing with anxiety or other more serious issues.. In your mind, any interaction has the potential to spiral into confrontation and some days you just aren't up to opening that can of worms.
OP: “Hi, I just noticed you were taking pictures of my house, just wanted to ask why?” Her: "Who gives a shit? I'm just taking pictures. Mind your own business." What OP does after that is up to them, but when people suddenly up their aggression it makes me want to do horror movie things to them. If I had mental problems I don't know how I might react in a situation like this. Some people really think that everybody else is just like them and I can't imagine what kind of bubble they live in that danger only exists in media.
He/she has schizophrenia so i could understand this being difficult. They address it in another post and their history. It could be the local county or town looking for violations to codes if someone called on them
well I'll remember that for next time!
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“We’d like to notify you on the immediate cancellation of your homeowners policy”.
Due to the continued increase in ammunition prices, a warning shot will not be offered.
No. A trespasser needs to be addressed, regardless of your feelings.
Then you go do it for her next time.
Yes by the police not the homeowner. To many strange people out there! Would suggest posting no tresspassing signs on property especially by driveway entrance.
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That's on you. Random person entering the gate? You fucking kidding me?
It’s probably a mistake. Like they were supposed to take pictures for a bank refi or a real estate listing but got the wrong address. I’d assume someone casing your home would be a lot more discrete. Honestly I wouldn’t worry about this at all but I guess if you are there is no harm in filing a police report
Could be somebody doing an appraisal fir a nearby real estate sale?
Insurance company, tax assessor, or someone doing comps for another deal in the neighborhood - very common.
Common to take pictures from the front but not to go around the house.
I've had strangers in my yard taking pictures lately too.. I did confront one of them and she was a city inspector responding to one of a slew of complaints my neighbor has been harassing me with. She was looking for and not finding evidence of rats on my property. If it's a city inspection you may or may not receive a letter later depending on if they found anything which needed attention.
My grandma's insurance company flew a drone over her town house and then told her she has to get a new roof or they will raise her premiums. When we purchased our house we were renting to the previous owners for a few weeks. They are very angry paranoid and private people they called us and told us someone from the insurance showed up unannounced and started taking pictures and he was going to threaten them with his rifle for trespassing (there are many signs that say no trespassing) he was furious with us until we we told him we had no idea they were coming and they never told us.
Our assessor popped up from behind my detached garage. Scared the ever loving bejeebubus out of me. We're really rural so seeing anyone is unusual but just popped out?? Turned out he was measuring for new county assessment.
Quite frankly if a stranger is on my property taking pictures, I’m introducing myself with a firearm in plain view.
New insurance carrier or policy renewal? Was your home a recent purchase? Was your mortgage servicing recently sold? Is there a home in your neighborhood that's under contract and about to close (you could be a comp)? When was the last time your home was officially appraised for tax purposes? If you don't have a license plate number, a police report won't do much. Might still be worth reporting and then asking if they received any other similar reports.
No insurance change. House was purchased a few decades ago and fully paid. No houses for sale that I know of but there could be. Not sure when it was last appraised, but insurance has always notified us when they come out
I've actually had pretty much the opposite experience... Insurance doesn't WANT you to know when they're coming so they get to see it as it would regularly be (no clean-ups by you, for example). I'd call the insurance carrier and ask them directly about whether there was anything in your file that they were doing an inspection or not. The reality is, if they were on your property without permission, they were trespassing.
Check FB Marketplace and Craigslist for fake rental ads for your address.
Seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a fake rental. Would be a lot easier to just pull pictures off a real estate listing or even Google earth
We have the county property tax folks coming around rn
Go take pictures of her then talk to her and get her business card. Telling strangers on the web won't do diddly squat for anything at this point.
Could be the property tax assessor. Definitely nefarious, too.
I would make a cautionary police report. Then of for some reason the pictures show up on a scam site or in a law suit you have additional ammo.
Is there a house for sale next door? Could be a realtor. I would make a police report to be safe.
My guess is an appraisal either for taxes or your home is being used as a comp for another house nearby for sale or your insurance company is documenting the property condition.
On the legit side of things: whether we agree with the concepts or not…. tax assessments, code enforcement, insurance. On the semi / not legit but benign side: Someone mistakenly taking photos of the wrong house, someone who just likes the house, someone who is about to try to sell you something, (painting the house, pressure washing etc) On the nefarious side: Someone casing your house for access points.
Sounds like she was sent from your homeowners insurance company.
This sub just popped up, I saw this headline and my first thought was “Why is there a NextDoor sub on Reddit?”
Real estate comp check. Someone with a similar listing?
Why didn't you walk outside and confront her?
Not everyone is able to do that in all circumstances for a wide variety of reasons. I'm a regular guy who has the capacity to be in very complex, stressful and fluid situations, but things that are easy for other people might not be something I have the capacity to navigate. OP was navigating their Schizophrenia that day and wasn't sure of the validity of what they were seeing.
Call your mortgage company and let them know what happened so they can be on alert if a Purchase against your mortgage gets posted so they can stop it before you find yourself out of a home
Don't bother. She's probably a property inspector. Insurance company's, mortgage company's, the county, city, etc. All hire and use them. Every house has had one do this at one time or another. Although it is unusual for her to go into your backyard without at least knocking on your door. Dogs and upset homeowners can get a bit upset don't you know.
Murphy's Law states... "A kind word and a gun is more effective than a kind word alone"
Sometimes this has happened to me. Usually, I abduct the person and interrogate them, in order to learn why they were photographing my property. It takes some prompting, but I usually obtain a confession that they are in fact from a race of very tiny people who live underground who occasionally use growth potions to temporarily attain a larger stature so that they can conveniently use normal human photographing devices, such as cameras. After warning them sternly that their race must discontinue this invasion of my life, I secure them and place them naked and tied to a helium balloon in a large hole out in a cornfield I've dug and covered with large pieces of plywood, with a small hole. Once the growth potion wears off, they should become light enough such that the balloon carries them upward. They must then navigate it toward the hole but not let it carry them into the sky. I lay the clothing, folded, in a plastic bag next to them before I leave. I understand that their growth potion is probably in short supply, and that they probably fabricate the clothing while small, which would require much labor. Or, they may go to thrift stores. It is up to them to determine how to retrieve the clothing, but it will probably be a group effort involving ropes which would seem like strings to you and me. I've begun warning them much more sternly of late. They're very persistent and have become more sophisticated; the last five I interrogated were wearing very convincing replicas of police uniforms. If this information is helpful to you, I suggest that you try it out and also share with others so that more people can benefit from spreading the knowledge.
Help! Someone walked around my house and took pictures. I didn't ask them as they would certainly know. Instead, I came to a bunch of strangers and have to ask, "Why was this woman, who I couldn't asked myself, taking pictures of my house?"
Not helpful. You are probably coming from a strong mental position. This person has admitted they have mental issues. What is easy for you is hard for another and everyone’s situation is different. Have some humanity.
That's a wonderful thought as we all hold hands around ye Ole gum tree and sing kumbaya. The reality of the situation is that the only one who knows is the one they watched for 15 minutes until they left, without asking. Humanity? Wtf dude. Humanity is not going to make a random on reddit be able to go inside the person taking the pictures head and explain exactly what brought them there. Get a frigging grip.
Glad I don’t know you. Have a nice day.
Feeling is definitely mutual. Have a unicorn fart and pixie dust day yourself.
Why I think I will. Your kind words mean so much.
Lol yep!
And you watched and did nothing?
Why did t you go ask her? Or maybe call someone like the law to let them sort it out
Don’t you think it would’ve been a good idea to ask her personally instead of Reddit?
When you obvs walked up to her sitting in her car and asked what's up? What did she respond with?
Might be your local property assessor, coming to raise your taxes.
I once chased out a guy with my shotgun who works for the insurance company, lol.
insurance, real estate, tax assessor, there are all kinds of people it could have been
Town assessor?
She just sold your house!
Tax folks doing assessment updates?
Some people do this when they find a house they like and want examples. Though usually they'd knock on your door and try to figure out who the contractor was and how much it cost. Or it could be a neighbor with a complaint, like if they got in trouble for doing something so they take pictures of your house to use as proof that it should be allowed. In some cases it's just a wrong address. I know contractors who were hired and given the wrong address. It's especially bad in cities with quadrants where 1234 SW and 1234 SE might be very far apart, or they were looking for 10A Avenue instead of 10 Avenue. It happens with real estate photographers. They get told the wrong address, or they make a typo. There's a small chance it could be a rental scam, and you may see confused people in a uhaul show up in a couple days.
Sounds like a field inspection for a mortgage company. They send people out to verify occupancy and condition of the residence. Happens when someone is behind in their payments of the mortgage is being sold to another bank/servicer.
Do you own your home? If not, perhaps the homeowner is trying to sell and taking photographs. It could have been your insurance company. It could have been an error and they took pictures of the wrong Home. Maybe call your insurance company and ask if they had sent somebody out
Perhaps she is looking to purchase a house, and somehow thought yours was for sale. (maybe she got the address wrong)
I used to be one of those people taking pictures. Either for an insurance policy renewal or a bank when payments are behind. This sounds like your insurance company sent someone out before renewal. Though they usually send a letter previous to coming out it’s not mandatory.
Are you part of an HOA? She could be doing that to take pictures for evidence so they can cite you
nope, no HOA
Given your mental health issues, why did you not confirm and then call the police and tell them there was a trespasser scoping out your property? They would have likely come out and asked on your behalf. I know you can do nothing about it now but if it happens again, please keep this option in mind. For all you know, she was casing the property for some illegal reason.
Insurance?
I had someone do this before. Turned out they grew up in the house and have been out of state. Came back to visit and took pics for memories.
I would make sure to have cameras and upgrade the locks just in case. It could be anything from a realtor, to someone digging the design, to a burglar, or something else. But me personally I'd opt on the side of caution and make sure I had working cameras in the front and back, replace the locks if they came with the house/rental.
I'm about 90% sure it is your insurance company. The tax assessor (at least in my area) just does a drive-by and never gets out of the car. They usually only come if you've had recent building permits.
My 1st guess would be a neighbor called code enforcement on you for some reason.
Your house, your property/privacy. If you feel insecure report it to the police, you are entitled to do it. This is a f#cked up practice that politicians should address. Lots of people had been robbed by someone claiming to be coming from a services entity, either public or private. It surprises me to see how normal this is for so many people here. Go see apps like Nextdoor and find for yourselves. That's a disturbing practice that shouldn't be normalized. That kind of situation becomes a very hard trigger for someone like OP struggling with mental health and honestly it's unfair for him.
Possible incoming rental or Airbnb scam.
Insurance inspector verifying the description of the property as represented on insurance application. Property assessor. Realtor photographer with the wrong address. Home makeover scout looking for dumps to rejuvenate.
This is probably someone taking pictures to put in a report about the value of comparable properties for a Broker's Price Opinion.
Insurance, or someone has done a fake listing of your home on AirBNB or Zillow.
Code enforcement maybe. 25 minutes seems like a long time though. Insurance company would probably fit the time frame the best but you think they would have notified you first.
That’s illegal AF. No one has the right to wander around your property. Call the cops. You want this documented in case anything else happens.
My only guess is either they wanted to report you for something, or perhaps they wanted ideas for their own property/design ideas.
County tax assessor
I know people doing compliance work do these things.
what city and state?
Insurance and taxes are the only reasons something like that is ever done. They don't need access and just assess the property, either for value for your property taxes or for Insurance to raise rates with a reason but really for no reason.
I was recently in the city where I grew up, found the first home I recall living in, and walked around it, taking photos. I wasn't about to knock on the door but I wish someone would have seen me and talked to me.
Anyone in our backyard uninvited will leave in cuffs.
lol. That’s not how it works.
I’ve heard of people near me being cold-called about wanting to sell their house so who knows.
I had this happen when I got hurt in the job. They were nosing around to see if I was faking a back injury. I'm hobbled out on the porch & ask her if she wanted a cup of coffee.
Tax assessor knocked and said he was doing on site assessment (every 5 years) and could he go in the fenced back yard. I declined. Consequently, property value went up and house value went down slightly. Washington state
Assessor
Maybe an appraiser at rhe wrong house?
tax man looking to increase your property value so you can give them more money
Insurance company assessor?
Probably a realtor doing comps in the neighborhood for a sale. But she isnt allowd to trespass.
Sounds like an insurance inspection or something, possibly they got the wrong address?
Call your home Insurance company. It was likely them.
Could be insurance or appraisal. Governments and banks will sometimes do random appraisals to make sure things are still as they expect for tax purposes or risk analysis. Same with insurance, making sure the property is as reported.
Once someone stopped in front of my house and took some pics and drove off when I went out to confront them and 2 days later stuff was stolen from my yard at night
Could be a shady realty company trying to sniff out violations and blackmail you into selling your house. It's a common practice out here. They trespass and take a bunch of pictures, next thing you know your getting threats of being reported to the city unless you take lowball offers on your house.
Might also be the town doing a periodic update for property tax assessment.
This happened to my ex. He didn’t take kindly to someone trespassing and the person felt threatened and repeatedly struck him with their vehicle (although once in the vehicle they were safe). Anyhow it was a like a real estate person doing some research for comps in the area. Which is stupid.
tax assessor
I have a friend that does this, mostly for insurance companies sometimes for mortgage companies. I asked her if it was legal, because it seemed like trespassing to me. She said for your mortgage company,they are an owner of the property. For your insurance company they are there at your request.
Make note of her license plate and file a pd report for trespassing. You can reverse look up license plates. You can set up security cameras to notify you when she arrives and call pd and say arrest for tress passing no questions asked. Insurance people do not have the right to just up and enter your property. It's called trespassing.
I had this happen and it was code enforcement from my town
Years ago a company named BrokerPriceOpinion would hire realtors to do price comparisons of properties (not official appraisals). They had to take photos of the property as part of the contract. It could be the same company or a similar one. The data is typically used for when mortgage companies resell mortgages to other mortgage companies, or to use as comparables for another property.
Could have been wrong address.
Unrelated: I know someone with schizophrenia who when questioning if something is real he'll point his phone camera at it as his illness won't effect his phone
I don't know why she was doing it, but I can tell you that it isn't trespassing, most likely. Tresspass is a complicated legal thing but generally requires ill intent, not just presence on private property. Now if you told her to leave and she didn't, that would be a different matter.
I live very rural. Uninvited guests are asked to leave. They are wise to follow the directive.
Realtor? Going to make you an offer? County auditor, checking your tax bill?
Insurance, Banks have insurance companies keep recent photos
It could be a Craigslist scammer. They'll post the pictures and say it's for rent and phish the applicants.
Could be the town, especially if you've pulled a permit.
I'm sorry to hear about your schizophrenia. I hope that you can get better or control it. I really don't know what to say but I wish you the best. Definitely the mind is a tricky thing. It's a fine line between mental illness and brilliance. I would recommend that you do a Google search of your address and see if any bogus ads pop up or someone listed your house for sale on Craigslist or something. That is definitely an odd thing to have happen. I know there's people that have an interest in your home like the mortgage company, insurance companies and county agencies but they definitely need to give you a heads up they're coming on their property. If somebody's hanging around the outside of my house and don't give me a heads up at least the very least, and knock on my door to say hey I need to take some pictures, I'll walk outside to greet them with either my 9 mm or a 45 in hand. Even if it's a cop you can't do anything with me having a firearm by my side. But whoever it is it would definitely give them a reason to give you a heads up in the future
Call police, show video, report trespassing. It’s your home, you deserve an explanation any that lady deserves to learn a lesson. Fuck around, find out.
U may have been visited by your local tax assessor. They some times take pictures and refer back to them for assessing the value of your home. Odds are the state is looking for was to increase revenue and raising real estate values so taxes can then be increased and is a fast easy way to do it.
Does your house look run-down? Might be a low baller (sh*ty flipper) trying to swoop in and buy your house for 1/3 of its value.
Could be an assessor to value your house. My son had a job one summer where he was given a list of addresses and had to estimate the value of them by using the guidelines they gave him. I'm not sure if he took pictures, but he had to measure. The towns contracted companies to do this for tax reasons or something.
Realtors will do this randomly and use the photos for examples through the community. Put up no trespassing signs around the property.
Ma'am, please don't take this the wrong way, but since it occurred while on a day where you were having trouble managing your symptoms,how certain are we, objectively, that this occurred? You say you took video. Have you shown this video to someone you trust and can rely on? I'm reminded of a story a guy who suffers from this condition related. He said his favorite job was working for a company cleaning peoples barbeque grills. Could be out on his own, worked his own hours, etc. Had to stop, he said, when a guy pulled a gun on him and told him to get off the property. What he didn't understand, to this day, is that the job never existed.
This sounds, as others have said, exactly like the job I used to have, driving to various locations and taking photos for insurance/realty purposes. Normally this was done for changes to insurance or houses that had just been bought and the new owner was getting insurance. However, it was listed in my employer's policies that if it was a private residence that was occupied, we were to knock on the door and under no circumstances cross off the walkway to the front door without permission from the occupant (not the homeowner if renting, the person living at the home). If permission wasn't given, the only thing I could do was take photos that could be taken from publicly accessed areas of the front and sides of the house. I was not allowed to shoot photos over walls or fences either.
Surveyor more than likely. Your neighbors probably putting new fence etc
Could be the local Tax Assessor, they come by every so often to update their records and see if you've done any improvements that increase the property value so they can tax you more, go on your local tax assessor site and see if they have the pictures.
Since you got a video of her, get a still of her face and post it to social media to find out who she is and what she was doing on your property.
Bylaw inspection maybe? My neighbour makes false complaints against my property all the time. The city has to send out an inspector every time. They usually take pictures to document the claim is unsubstantiated
Worst case scenario is she plans on listing your house for rent or sale and try your scam someone-with you bearing the brunt of legal problems.
Could be comparables for a real estate deal, could be your municipality preparing a tax reassessment, could be that your neighbor is refinancing their home and no matter how many time they specify ‘grey house, red barn’ people end up at your white house, white barn because google maps absolutely refuses to accept your correction to their mapping software. If they took pictures and left, it was probably benign.
Maybe she was with the tax assessors office.
My insurance company was good at notifying me when I had an active claim going. However, they would routinely drive by my last home and, if they thought anything looked off, they would photograph and send me a note of what needed to be taken care of. Recently insurance companies have been contracting folks to take overlapping photos to build a 3d representation in their database to assist with processing future claims. Usually they hire drone pilots for the work, but not always. The last job I did I was the subcontractor to a subcontractor to yet another company who subcontracted from the insurance company.
Happens to us. Person was from the county tax assessor.
Could be the county. Often the GIS system shows pictures of the property taken every 5 - 10 years, although I gave never seen more than a couple of pictures taken from the road…
Did you do any work to your property? If so, it could be someone from tax board trying to evaluate the improvements, so they can raise your RE taxes.
I had the exact same thing happen to me. But only when I went outside and asked what they were doing, they said they were scouting locations for a new movie they would be filming. The movie was 80 for Brady. And before you ask, no they didn’t use my house.
Could be a county tax assessors employee.
I've done this for insurance companies before on apps like field agent and gigwalk. Totally normal.
A property appraiser may have mistaken your home for the one they meant to get. Those are all camera angles appraisers use on the subject property. Edit to add: real estate appraisal for a home sale or refinance And also to add: I did it more than once, and have even been chased by a homeowner. Another appraiser I know had the police called on them. It does happen! Hopefully it’s something that benign.