By Katherine Clarke | Realtor.com
It took weeks for Jade Mills to finger the perp.
The real-estate agent had been showing a mansion in Los Angeles’s Benedict Canyon area for several months with no success. Priced at around $10 million, the Hamptons shingle-style property boasted seven bedrooms and a swimming pool with a spa. Prospective buyers would seem enamored but never be heard from again.
Then Ms. Mills got a call from another agent. She learned that the sellers’ housekeeper, fearful of losing her job once the home sold, was giving buyers a laundry list of woes. The neighbor’s dog was a barker, the canyon echoed loudly at night, and another neighbor hosted raucous parties.