I do, sometimes, even though I’m not in the housing market. I decided to start this thread because I found a house that seems to violate every building code known to man. It’s in southern Missouri, not far from where I lived some years ago. The attic in particular has to be seen to be believed.
Once in a while I think about living in a different part of the state or the country, and peruse real estate listings in that area to get an idea what it might be like to live there.
I usually only see these weird types of houses (I haven’t looked at this one yet) when brought to my attention, sometimes here, sometimes on Facebook.
eta: not sure I will last through the whole video, the narrator is not good at it
I used to read real estate listings even when we were not in the market, but I worked in a real estate-adjacent field, so I found them interesting. What I’ve started reading the last few years, though, is the public announcements. You know, the fine print section with foreclosures, petitions for name changes, business name listings, termination of parental rights, etc. I have no idea why I do it, but every day I skim them, looking for something familiar. A property I might know, or a business or person I might know. I even read the announcements for public works projects bids, although not very thoroughly. Every now and then I’ll spot a typo and wonder what difference it might make.
You’ve GOT to check out the attic. That place looked like a disaster waiting to happen.
I like to peruse Zillow Gone Wild and Now I’m Architecture Shaming on the Book o’ Faces. I’ve seen a few houses in my own area on ZGW. It’s fun to see what people do to their homes.
When Only Murders in the Building began, I was trying to find some details about the real life building that so brilliantly plays The Arconia. To get a look at the inside of the building I had to join a listing site. For months afterwards I was receiving daily listings for property sales in New York. It took a real effort of will to stop spending my time looking through them.
Then yesterday, I was reading an interesting article about screenwriter William Goldman that made reference to his palatial New York apartment. So I looked for an address for him and found that he had lived at 50 E 77th St. I found a listing for https://www.realestate.com.au/international/us/50-east-77th-street-new-york-ny-110102778546/ but wisely chose to look no further.
The Belnord. I really like the interior courtyard. It looks like a really nice place to live but The Arconia is a more pleasing name than The Belnord.
Adjacent story. ~15 years ago I was looking to maybe move to Dallas. I ended up in SoFL instead.
But among the places in Dallas there was one listing that kept coming up in my searches. It was a huge house right on a lake. Superb location. Suspiciously low price. The pix of the interior showed it was vast, dated, and wacky. But it was filled with what had been all high-end gizmos and appliances from the last ~30 years. So I asked the agent I’d hired about that place.
Oh, that place. Every agent in town knows the story. It had been built over 20+ years by a nut and then his nutty kids. No permits, no code compliance, it’s starting to fall down because there were no actual plans or engineering. The only reason it’s not condemned is we’re in Texas.
Not wanting to start my move with a bulldozer renovation, I passed. I can’t now remember enough about the exact location find it on Google maps or Zillow for you. But it was a real doozy.
When a house in my neighborhood goes on the market, I check out the listing because, well, nosey. Back in the old newspaper days, I’d skim the real estate section and dream. That’s about it.
My wife does, a lot. When we are out walking, we will frequently see a for sale sign on a house, and she asks “I wonder how much they want for that?”
So when we get home, on goes the computer.
It’s just curiosity; we have no intention of moving anytime soon.
Back in the days when I had a subscription to the local newspaper, they would have a weekly real estate insert that I would always look through. But not so much these days. My wife will sometimes check out what homes for sale in our neighborhood are going for, but that’s about it.
I occasionally check real estate listings for places or neighborhoods where crimes happen or notorious people live. Not to look for bargains (assuming arrests or multiple murders might drive down the selling price) but out of morbid curiosity, like wondering what sort of place the recently-fired Michigan football coach had. I also check our own Zillow listing once in awhile. It’s not for sale but Zillow estimates its value, probably inflating it.
There’s a story in today’s Boston Globe about a couple of beachfront homes on Cape Cod that normally would sell for zillions, but just got sold for about $100,000 each. The catch is that they’re located perilously close to the edge of a bluff being eroded by the sea. One of them was 75 feet from the bluff a few years ago; now it’s 16 feet. It sounds like they were either bought by optimists, people who think they will be able to move the houses, or those figuring it’ll beat the cost of rental for however long the houses last.
https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/cape-cod-cottage-cliff-ocean-sale-price-discount/
I do kind of keep an eye on listings that would fit my kids’ needs. Both of my kids have had their own places for several years, but ya never know…
Also, I look up places I used to live. The house I lived in twenty years ago has been renovated nicely. We replaced cabinets, flooring, etc. when we sold it, just to upgrade it. They took out those cabinets, but made the kitchen a lot larger, yay!
However, the house I lived in as a child has also been changed. I had to really study some of the pictures to understand what had been done. They walled in the patio to make another living space, and apparently let the backyard turn into an impenetrable jungle. Interestingly, the extremely dated tiny yellow tiles and wall-mounted toothbrush holder in the smaller bathroom remain. I like to look at that picture and remember stuff like the time I found the soap with a perfect bite missing in the shape of my brother’s teeth. 
The house I grew up in has been converted to a treatment and counseling center for drug addicts.
Sometimes you just can’t go home again…
Well, you can, but that’s an extra-hard journey Fate has picked for you.
When my Dad died his house, where I lived much of my youth, was sold to a wacky cult. No doubt they gutted the interior and made it a dorm for WAG 30 people who were sorta enslaved by the cult leader and worked in the cult’s factory & shop doing whatever they did. Think Branch Davidians but with less exploding.
So yeah, sometimes Fate makes the journey home harder than it should be.
True, but sometimes it’s not so bad
A few years ago we went past the house where I grew up for my first 18 years. And we went up to have a look. It had been quite tastefully restored and extended by the new owners. They were very gracious and showed us what they had done. I felt it was in reliable hands…
It’s a hobby almost, perusing the RealEstate listings. I like to hone in on coastal California and Hawai’i. Looking at property taxes is astonishing. Though sometimes come across super low taxes too in an enclave like Montexito is strange even if a modest small house. And daydreaming about the Keewenawpeninsula in upper northern Michigan. Not my taste in style but that location!
Also Cajun country in Louisiana, shotgun shacks or vine covered cottages. I’ve spent millions of my imaginary wealth scooping up interesting properties.
I have a real fondness for vintage homes in original condition.
Me too. Especially because it’s a bunch of tract homes and I can sometimes see what people have done with my exact same floor plan. In fact, I am going to check one out in a couple of hours.
I don’t but my brother LOVES doing this. So much so he will check listings in places where he travels too and, sometimes, check them out.
Of course, I will check my local property prices on occasion out of curiosity.
Fast forward to 11:30 when he’s upstairs and watch for a few seconds. Worth it.
To answer the OP, I like to look at houses for sale. I’m on a lot of RE mailing lists, so I can idly look on line; the 360 on line tours are great. It’s purely curiosity, and I like to think, “if I owned this place, what would I do with it?”
I would never waste a real estate agent’s time by booking an appointment to see a place when I’m not serious. But I pop in to open houses from time to time.