Pest Control

This from buyer who worked with the "Very Busy Broker".

"She got us through the sale, and we moved in. Well, actually, according to the law of agency, she got her seller through the sale and we just came along for the ride. We liked the home. Saw it listed in the Boston Globe, and called HER. She she got us through the sale.

"It was after we moved in -- long after -- that we began to wonder about ghosts or something. Little things would happen. The paving bricks in the backyard were uprooted one morning. I said, hmmm, but my wife said, 'Animals.' I could not find my garden hose one day, my rake the next. I lost my potted orange tree.

"One month I noticed I had passed due balances on my telephone bill, and electric bill. I could not remember paying my American Express bill, come to think of it, and when I checked, it was NOT paid.

"I needed air in my rear tire one day. A few weeks later, I needed it in again.

"One day the police showed up at my home while no one was there. They were milling about when I came home. It seems there was a call about trouble at my home, phoned in by my neighbor.

"'Trouble?' I asked, 'You don't seem to be too alarmed.'

"'No, replied the officer, 'We did not think there was a problem, but we had to come out. After all, you live next to her, and he pointed to my neighbor's home.

"The officer continued: 'She calls us about twice a month. Never a real problem. Just annoying to us and, now you. Get used to it. She's the reason they invented fences. She and her kids. The kids will take your things if you leave them out. Never can catch 'em doing it. They are just those kids of people. Pests. Like I said, get used to it."

Dear readers, our buyer is now thinking of putting his home on the market, but assumes he will not have much luck in selling. Everybody, except himself seems to know about the crackpot neighbor.

If there is a lesson here, it may be that one should have a BUYER REP. A good buyer rep -- like me -- will find out by what ever manner if your prospective neighbor is Albert Schweitzer ot Albert DeSalvo.

At any rate, do not go it alone. This is one kind of pest that cannot be sprayed away.