Snoopers Use NYC Open Houses to Sneak Around, Survey Finds Updated September 15, 2010 10:53am

About 40 percent of "prospective buyers" are really just there to snoop, a new real estate survey found. (DNAinfo/Della Hasselle)

By Della Hasselle

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — A large number of "prospective buyers" going to open houses in Manhattans are really just there for a voyeuristic thrill, the New York Post reported.

Forty-one percent of the people attending open houses in Manhattan and Brooklyn reportedly have no intention of buying and are only there to sneak a peek inside their neighbors’ closets and read private notes on fridges and desks, according to a survey by title-insurance company Entitle Direct.

"New Yorkers are thinking about real estate a lot," Entitle real estate sales director Edward Baum told the Post. “It’s virtually a competitive sport. They’re looking at how they’re doing in relation to their neighbors.”

Looking out from the 17th floor of a penthouse at 1133 Park Avenue. Many people in Manhattan use open houses as an opportunity to snoop through personal belongings, a survey found. (Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate)

The title company surveyed nearly 200 people across Manhattan and Brooklyn, including the East Village, Upper West Side, West Village, Gramercy and Upper East Side, the Post reported.

By Della Hasselle, DNAinfo.com

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