Taking pictures of houses

[Aleness]

Every time I drive home from work around sunset, I pass some beautiful houses in Beverly Hills. Nothing too fancy, but time and again, some house catches my eye and I wish I had a camera with me.
I was planning to take my camera, a tripod and shoot some HDR photos.
Now, with this photographer being banned from businesses because he was taking pictures of people on public property scandal, I'm wondering if I should expect a similar reaction.
I'm not planning on taking pictures of people, just houses from a sidewalk at the most. I'm not going to even step onto someone else's private property.
While I can understand if people don't want to be photographed on the street, these are just houses and I will even try my best not to record street names, but I don't think it matters.
I think if I could explain to people that I'm working on a small project and their house caught my attention, they might be more lenient to relax and let me take photos.
Any thoughts or comments?

[theextremist04]

I would say just try not to draw attention to yourself. Go in, take pictures, get out.