Real estate secrets hiding in plain sight

Most people hop on real estate sites just to see their dream house or check local sales prices. That’s cute, but if you know where to click, these sites cough up more secrets than your drunk aunt at Thanksgiving. 

🏠 Homes.com, The Mortgage Peep Show
This one is crazy. Search an address, scroll down far enough on the page, and sometimes you’ll see the current mortgage details: how much the owner borrowed, what they still owe and their interest rate. 

Yep, you can find out if your neighbor snagged a sweet 2.75% or is sweating it out at 7%. Not every property shows this, but when it does, it’s like finding the golden ticket.

📊 Redfin, The Price Detective
Scroll past the listing fluff and head to Public Facts and Price Insights. You’ll see the home’s entire sales history, property tax changes and exactly when price drops happened. 

There’s also a “Time on Redfin” number. If that dream house has been sitting for 112 days, guess what? The seller’s probably ready to deal.

🏡 Zillow, The Quiet Gossip Queen
Everyone knows Zillow for the “Zestimate,” but that’s just the appetizer. Click Price/Tax History, and you’ll see what the seller paid, when they bought and how their taxes have climbed over the years. 

Flip on the “Foreclosures” or “Make Me Move” filters, and you’ll uncover homes that aren’t officially on the market but could be yours if the price is right.

🗺 Realtor.com, The Neighborhood Spy
Click the Neighborhood tab, and it’s like you’re strolling the block with X-ray vision. You get commute times, school ratings, crime stats and what the neighbors paid for their houses. 

Peek at the Property History, too. Sometimes it shows if a home was yanked off the market before. That’s insider info you can use to your advantage.

When you’re buying, selling or just being nosy (no judgment), the boring tabs are where the gold is. And yes, it’s all legal. It’s just hiding in plain sight, waiting for someone savvy like you to click.

🎲 Speaking of… When it comes to board games about buying real estate, Hasbro really has the Monopoly.

Privacy report card: Which AI flunked

AI bots are our digital sidekicks. They’ve helped me write emails faster, plan my vacations, you name it. But the more we share, the more these bots learn about us. That can come back to bite you. Let’s lock down your data before your secrets become someone else’s payday.

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✅ Back it up, or risk losing it. Total Drive is offering a great deal! Total Drive automatically backs up your precious memories, family photos, graduation videos and all your important documents. Everything’s safely stored in the cloud. It’s simple, secure, and yes, I use it, too! Get 10TB for just $18 with this limited time offer.  

$160,000

The price of the “Ammortal Chamber,” aka a human optimization pod. It uses 10 wellness technologies to boost your body and mind in just 20 to 30 minutes. Pro athletes are already using them, and soon you can, too. They’re popping up in spas across the country.

👏 Get noticed on LinkedIn by posting when it matters most! Peak times are Tuesday to Thursday, 7–9 a.m. or 11 a.m.–1 p.m. Skip weekends and late nights. Use my special link to post a job for free on LinkedIn.

🚨 You must read this before your next Uber ride

⚠️ Warning: This story contains details about sexual assault that may be disturbing.

I know two women who were raped by an Uber driver. That’s not hearsay or a story I read online. They trusted the ride, believed the app was safe and paid the price in the most horrific way possible.

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Pour one out: After 24 years, Apple finally gave the old “Macintosh HD” icon the boot, replacing the hard disk image with a new SSD-style one in macOS 26 Tahoe. Because nothing says innovation like updating a decorative PNG five years after the hardware changed. Wait until they hear Safari’s icon is a compass. 

11:18 p.m.

That’s when the average American actually falls asleep. Bedtime may start at 10:36 on average, but your brain’s running a late-night talk show until nearly midnight. Toss in some regret, a side of scrolling, the kids starting school again, and voilà, sleep debt before sunrise.

🩸 Caught red-handed: A jury ruled Meta broke privacy law by quietly siphoning up data from the Flo period app. Yes, including your pregnancy goals and cycle info. The twist? Flo gave it up via hidden SDKs. Meta claims it didn’t know what it was collecting. The court was like: lol, ok. Now they face massive damages.

IG’s map is sus: Rolling out now, Instagram Map broadcasts your last app activity location to friends. Meta swears it’s off by default, but I don’t trust it and apparently neither does half the internet. Here’s how to turn it off: Go to your Profile and Tap the ≡ menu (top right). Select Story, live and location, tap Location sharing, and toggle off sharing

🚨 Docusign warning: Scammers are sending fake Docusign emails claiming you’ve been charged by companies like Apple or Netflix. They tell you to call a number if you didn’t make a purchase, but it’s actually fake customer support trying to steal your info. Don’t click anything. When in doubt, log in directly to check your purchase history.

Share Instagram posts the right way: Tagging friends in the comments? Meh. Next time you see a funny reel, tap the little arrow under the post (or on the side). Pick who you want to send it to and hit Send. It lands right in their DMs. 

📚 Sort and filter books on your Kindle: You can organize your Library so it’s easier to find what you’re reading (or ignoring). Tap the Filter icon (top left) to show only Downloaded, Unread or Read books. Then hit the Sort icon (top right) to sort by Most Recent, Title or Author. Easy.

Sleep surveillance: Is your Fitbit saying you’re waking up at night more than usual? It’s not because you’re broken, sleep tracking just got “more accurate.” Translation: Fitbit is clocking every micro-wiggle like it’s the NyQuil NSA. Google says this is step one in a whole series of sleep upgrades, rest assured. 

Fake raids, real scams: Those viral “deportation at Walmart” TikToks? Total scam. Scammers are using phoney retail sob stories to phish your data with bogus surveys and sketchy “free gift” links. No ICE, just identity theft. Congrats, money just got deported from your bank account.

2,300 acres

The growing size of Zuckerberg’s Hawaiian estate. Zuck’s sprawl now covers more land than Disneyland and Central Park combined. He started with a $100M beachfront parcel in 2014, and now he’s got a mini-nation with bunkers, tunnels and Bond villain-level fit. He also just shelled out $30 million for a set of dorm-style buildings. 

Swifties, avert your eyes: Grok’s “spicy” video mode just casually turned AI Taylor Swift into a nude dancing avatar on the first try. No warnings, no real age checks. While other tools block NSFW celeb content, Grok was like “Sure, let’s get weird.” Somewhere, a lawyer just woke up sweating and didn’t know why.

Getting a phone before 13

Puts kids at a much higher risk of developing suicidal thoughts. A massive study of 100,000+ people found girls often take the biggest hit to self-worth and emotional control, while boys struggle more with calmness and empathy. The common culprit? No shocker here, social media.

💸 Apple’s $100B “core” investment: Sweet news! Apple’s about to pour another $100 billion into U.S. manufacturing. Analysts say it’s likely headed toward high-end gear and AI labs, not iPhones and chargers. Either way, I’m glad to see this kind of big bite coming back to our shores.

70+ years

How long since the U.S. opened a rare earth mine. One dusty spot in Wyoming could supply America with rare earths for over 150 years. That’s phones, fighter jets and EVs covered till 2175. China controls 90% of processing right now, so yeah, this is big news for cowboy country. Yeehaw, meet geopolitics.