You may be able to get some clues if you can do a search through the Assessors Office. Maybe your area has something similar
to the San Francisco Assessor’s Office?
https://www.sfassessor.org/property-information/homeowners/property-search-tool
There are lights on in the house – but they’re always the same lights.
That’s sort of odd. You can get programmable light controls for under five bucks that would give a better impression of someone being home. Better still if you hook up a TV to one.*
And the homes beside it are still pretty pricey (although not quite as much). But you only have to go half a block to find a comparable home. This one stands out because it’s on a very open patch of ground, and is on the main road through the section.
*another item – I can easily see TV’s on (or the varying lights from them, reflected from ceilings and walls and shades) in other houses. Not this one, ever.
Our vehicles are kept in the garage about 99.9% of the time when we’re home, for security purposes and protection against bad weather.
I can understand not having the most expensive house, but not the least expensive one being a problem.
I just saw an ad in the local paper for a fairly pricey but not super-expensive home, with a selling point being that the other houses in the neighborhood went for $2 million-plus. Maybe that’s supposed to indicate they’ll be the target of burglaries first, or that the neighbors won’t be the kind to leave rusting pickup trucks and old refrigerators in their yards.
When I saw the thread title I thought you were talking about my definitely-humble abode.
- At one time there were 4 kids growing up here.
Now they are all grown. - My wife had a cousin visiting for a few months who helped her with everything. She went back home.
- The cat-scratched sofa was given to friends, leaving a big space where it once was.
All of these things together make this place seem way too big and empty.
I saw a car parked in their huge driveway last nigh!
There were lights on in various rooms that are always dark!
I didn’t see any people or signs of movement, but it was pretty clear that at least one person, and probably several, were in the house. That room in the back that was lit (I could see it from the side – as I’ve said, the house sits in the middle of a huge open plot) was almost certainly the kitchen.
But this morning the car was gone. The lights were out, but it was early as I drove to work.
So someone definitely made a visit yesterday in the early evening. But it looks like they were gone before morning.
Can you check public records (look for a link to the assessor on the city/county website and you can find tax bills) or zillow to see the last time the house was sold. If it’s been more then a few years, check to see if the current owner is still alive.
I’m wondering if either someone bought it and, for any number of reasons, simply hasn’t moved in yet or the owner died (or moved into their kid’s house/nursing home) and the family hasn’t sold it yet.
Keep in mind, if the house is paid for (well, even if it’s not), for many people maintenance and taxes on an unoccupied house isn’t a big concern. For example, if you’re bringing in a million+ a year, the 15k it takes to keep up an empty house isn’t likely to represent a financial hardship. It’s the equivalent of someone making 50,000 having to spend $750.
I had to look at your location to see if you lived near me (you don’t).
We’re in a DC suburb, surrounded by moderately spendy houses - not mansions by any means.
Along one road near us, though not in the newer subdividions, there have been any number of fairly modest places that have been torn down and replaced with really huge places. One, which we all call “The Manstrosity”, is on an enormous piece of land - must be 2-3 acres. Set back from the road, and almost no landscaping whatsoever. Occasionally I’ll see one car in the drivway , which I assume is a visitor or tradesperson, as the place has a 3-car garage. It’s like they deliberately got rid of every tree around so people could Gaze Upon The Majesty Of The Place.
All the other infill places on the street are done and landscaped in such a way that they look a lot more “at home”.
As you’re only going by on the weekdays, maybe it’s a weekend home? I have coworkers who drive 3 hours to work on Monday morning, stay near work during the week and then go home on Friday.
There are even those who fly in and out every week. Most of them have families elsewhere, which is why they have two places to sleep.
You do know what this means, don’t you? Your Mystery Owners read the Dope. They saw your thread, and they realized they’d better put in an appearance.
There is a neighborhood near me that has large lots and million dollar plus homes. Being a volunteer firefighter, we get to go into these homes at times for calls. There are several that look very opulent from the outside and then you get inside and find lawn chairs in the living room and a card table in the dining room. Another firefighter works for the neighborhood and said a lot of the houses are like that; they spend all of their money on the house and can’t afford furniture. Plus they work so many hours to keep the house, they are hardly ever home. Of course there are other homes that are luxury inside and out, maid, nanny and gardener to boot.
Do you live near a touristy area or a university? Could be a home specifically for AirBnB. There are nice homes here in CLE around CWRU campus that are bought by the well-off parents of students specifically so they can have a place to stay while visiting, so that idea has merit as well.
This house isn’t anywhere near a university. It’s out in the middle of a Rich People Town. I can’t see a place this freakin’ huge being an Airbnb place. And if it was, I’d definitely see a lot more car traffic and parking ther.
The place has been as dark and as apparently empty as ever since that one spurt of activity last Thursday.
KGB Safe-house then. That’s gotta be it 
Several months ago, my brother posted a link to this house on his Facebook page. At the time, it was listed for more than $1 million and still had the contents, but not in every room. It included a walk-in closet with one rack packed solid with empty hangers, and the kitchen island must have had 20 knife blocks on it, in addition to a blue plaid shirt hanging over a chair by that island.
He did a little sleuthing and discovered that it was being sold as part of a long, messy divorce, and my SIL wrote, “You can have the %^&ing knives, and the !@# hangers too!”
https://search.urbanacres.com/idx/photogallery/a104/20195680
ETA: To me, the outside almost looks like some kind of cult compound, with the lack of landscaping and all.
And bedsheets on the windows. That’s expected in my apartment complex, but not so much in the McMansion neighborhood.
Where I live, the people who do this are usually Indian physicians. This isn’t racist or classist; it’s what I have been told by people who go into these houses.