[teachnmo]

We purchased a home and closed on it Sept. 29th. We didn't move in until Oct. 12th. On Oct. 13th I had four water treatment services calling me in the morning with two of them around 8:00 a.m. May be an okay time for you, but my body wakes up at 9:00 a.m. naturally.

Now we sold our first home which was in Hemingway. We received a call from our Villages Sales Agent about a week ago that the buyer was very upset because a neighbor had called her and said the lawn was in very bad shape. We had just been over there that day. The seller closed on the house today and I stopped in to see the seller. Turns out it was a lawn service man who had called her in Missouri and said that the lawn was in bad shape and wanted her to hire his services.

My question is HOW do they get our phone numbers and seem to know when we move in? Did I miss something in the book of paperwork that we get at closing that lets the Villages give out information like that?

If so, I would advise future buyers to read every line thoroughly.

[getdul981]

We closed on Monday the 13th. The only phone # that we have is our cell phones. We have not received any calls about any of these services........yet. If and when we do, I'm going to have to ask how they got this number. I have only given it to people I want to have it. I think I might reconsider getting a land line for a while.

We did receive a letter from Massey about their services even before we closed. We had already gotten our mailbox key and that was one of the first pieces of mail that we received. Sounds like someone at the Post Office is leaking information.

[BlueHeronFan]

I got a phone call on my cell the other day from one of the financial adviser people. I asked him how he got my phone number, and was told "through our legal department".

I suppose that means, through the credit reporting companies.

[F16 1UB]

Enter Your Phone Numbers On This List Including Cell Phones. It MAY slow the calls. And you actually believe these people when they tell you how they got your number?

https://www.donotcall.gov/

[Niels]

I had a few people visit me but I did not get any phone calls. My neighbors got numerous calls from vendors when they first moved in.

Thinking about why they got the phone calls and I didn't, I noted that there were two differences. The first difference was that they wanted to be listed in The Villages directory and I told The Villages not to list me. The second difference was that they purchased a landline phone through CenturyLink and I did not. I believe one of these two items may have caused them to receive the phone calls.

[laryb]

We had our name put in the Villages directory and they used our Mass. #. When we had a landline installed by Comcast, the next day the calls started. Later that week our phone service was lost for 2 days, and as soon as it was restored, the calls started again. I assume they got the number from Comcast as a new listing.

[Herb]

Comcast sells the phone numbers.

[Niels]

Actually, I may be mistaken. My neighbors may have gottten their phone from Comcast because they did go with Comcast for their cable TV.

[redwitch]

CenturyLink also sells the numbers. They got the name wrong on my phone and I was getting all kinds of calls for the wrong name. Made it easy to track where they got the number.

BTW -- It is illegal for postal workers, even contractors, to give out any info about postal customers, so I doubt info would go out that way. It is possible that one of the building contractors, including the general contractor, might give out some of the info or that one of them has another business and uses the info when building to contact new homeowners. They might even have access to all of your phone numbers and addresses.

[Hawkwind]

In the county where I live in Ohio has a newspaper called the Summit County Legal News. It comes out once a week and lists all public legal record activity that has recently taken place or is on schedule to take place. This includes such things as births, deaths, marriages, divorces, property transactions, court hearing dates and anything else that deals with the legal system. A quick glance at that and a couple of internet searches and all types of contact information can be found.

Not sure if something like this exists in the local counties.

[rjm1cc]

Years ago I worked for a company that got the phone numbers form the telephone company. We would know the turn on or turn off date etc. This still could be going on if you put in a land line.

[teachnmo]

Thanks for the replies. It seems like a person has so much to do when moving in that answering the telephone from a bunch of services is annoying. To me anyway!

[Pturner]

We did not receive vendor calls after we purchased. This thread has got me thinking that I'm glad we did not install a land line.

[jebartle]

You can get a land line, just get a private listing.

[Talk Host]

Aren't all real estate transactions public record? It think it would be easy to see who closed on a house today.

We got a call from a lawn service and the guy said, "we drove by your house today, have you noticed how lousy your lawn looks compared to your neighbors."