I started this web site because I was disappointed and, occasionally, disgusted with the way some communities and real estate companies advertised homes for sale. There is a fine line between the truth and the whole truth, and it is hard for those of us thousands of miles away from a home for sale to distinguish the difference.
Here is one example I happened upon today at the Trulia.com web site: The House & Garden TV
The truth is that the HGTV is bold and beautiful, decked to the nines and with commanding mountain views. The whole truth, not indicated in the Sotheby's come-on, is that the house is in a nightmare community, Grey Rock. To date, it is the only house to be fully built in the 900 home-site community. The developer of the Lake Lure community, Land Resource, went belly up late last year, leaving more than 400 owners in Grey Rock and thousands more in its other dozen communities with nothing but devalued dirt, at least until other developers step in to clean up the mess.
The dream home itself is a 5,500 square foot, 5 BR, 5 BA stunner, with five fireplaces; a separate in-law guest wing complete with a kitchen; billiard room; wine room; exercise room; craft room; sleeping porch; office; and sauna. In most other locations, it might indeed be a dream home, even at its list price of $1.699 million, but in a white elephant location like Grey Rock, the house will appeal only to those wealthy recluses who, like Greta Garbo, truly "vant to be alone," or to those with the patient capital to wait some years before the rest of the community, without any amenities yet built, grows up around it.