KBTV

Rat out Your Neighbors Dot Com

Today on our Entrepreneur of the Month segment we will be looking at an enterprising man who’s banked on an age-old practice: gossiping about your neighbors. His new web site Rottenneighbor.com has become an instant success across the nation with 1 million hits each day.

Basically, as creator Brant Walker put it – his is a site that allows potential homebuyers and renters to see just what kind of neighbors they’d be getting if they moved in. All you have to do is type an address into the search bar on the home page. The location is then patched through in a Google Earth map and voila!! You can read stuff that’s been posted about the people in your neighborhood. Anyone can post anonymous comments, video and pictures about their neighbors. These show up on the map as either a green house – for good comments – or a bright red house – for bad neighbors.

Walker, a 27-year-old businessman from San Diego, got the idea for Rottenneighbor.com after a bad neighbor experience of his own. He and his girlfriend moved into a new apartment, and they soon noticed a rotten smelling coming from their neighbor’s place. Had they known what their neighbors were like, the couple wouldn’t have moved in. That’s when he thought…hmmm, “there should be some sort of service to let you know about your neighbors.”

Funded by investors and supported by Google advertising, Rottennighbor.com is developing additional features such as a social network where people can create a profile for free, add friends and send messages…a la Myspace.

But the real draw is the comments, which are often brutally honest and just plain funny. Here are a few of my favorites… “These are the dirtiest and most ignorant people I have ever met. Their house looks like a landfill," reads a post about a home in Kissimmee, Florida.

Another anonymous poster from New York has this to say about his neighbor in a home just off Parke Avenue: “Super rich Billionaire on the block has two or more Escalades parked illegally at all times making it impossible to park.” And finally a poster in Los Angeles who complains, "These people are snoopers. They snoop into other peoples yards as they walk there dog.”

Despite some biting posts, Walker says the Web site is providing an important service by helping people choose a place to live. Some, however, aren’t convinced. Critics say the posts could affect home values and invade people’s privacy. But Walker points out that he is legally protected by the Communications Decency Act of 1996. He’s also set up a system for removing “offensive” posts or comments that violate the terms and conditions of the site.

Despite the skeptics, Walker’s Rottennighbor.com has 1 million hits a day with people from New York, Los Angeles and Chicago among its most active users. He says there is even a reality television show in the works, based on the problems posted on the site.

Walker says the web site’s popularity is no coincidence. Even with the obvious pitfalls, he is confident that it’s helping potential buyers and renters and creating better neighbors since they can be held accountable for their actions.

After researching this piece…I was curious about what people were saying in my neighborhood. Were my neighbors saying anything about me? I decided to plug in my address and find out.

So far there are no posts in my neighborhood yet. Maybe I’ll be the first to comment. Go to rottenneighbor.com to see what people are saying about your neighbors!

posted by Jason Parsley @ 10:31 PM