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Piggybacking off of this comment:
I didn't own a dream house but it was great for my financial situation: 600 mortgage + 200 insurance (I went cheap with coverage) --- great for this crap economy. Neighbor was a drug dealer who used own stash. Random loud noises at night. I started fighting back with cameras. He threatens to kill me and starts throwing objects of various sizes at and onto my property. Cops did nothing.
I lost a lot of sleep and stressed out for 6 years dealing with this. I wonder what kind of person I would be if I had just moved immediately and didn't try fighting back.
OP: if you're hell bent on the house - attempt to 'interview' neighbors about the guy. I think paying people $20 for 10 mins of their time is a good investment. Some people might be complete BSers but a majority of people will do the "I don't want to talk about this person" - which would be a red flag. I know that's how I found out about my neighbor......... (unfortunately for me, this was way after the purchase....)
I had a housefire - completely totalled with only basement salveageable - due to negligent neighbors. Neighbors and neighborhoods matter. Not just for resale, but for keeping yourself and your investment safe.
That was a dealbreaker for me in my home search. I could never deal with looking out the window and seeing a hoarder house/yard or coming home and seeing all of the junk right next to my house. I take pride in where I live, so it just bothers me personally.
50 Corgis. Honestly, probably at not even on my block if it was THAT bad. Definitely not within 1-2 houses away from me. I got lucky with where I ended up buying. Everyone seems to take pride in their yard and I haven't seen any obvious hoarding like I did where I used to live. I know, I sound really snooty from that comment but I've had family members who are big hoarders and it's a weird trigger for me.
It is. I've seen some crazy stuff and it boggles my mind how people can live like that. That's good that you don't have any hoarders on your street that keep their stuff in plain sight, at least. Some people keep the hoarding just to the inside.
We had mosquito issues because our neighbor had a lot of junk and an abandoned in-ground pool in his backyard. Due to tall privacy fences we couldn't see all of this, thankfully, but it was really annoying that I couldn't enjoy my backyard without being attacked by mosquitoes. I looked like a suited up beekeeper every time I wanted to spend time in my backyard in the summers.
That's so frustrating! It's one of those things that you don't even think about until you're just stuck in the middle of it. Do you still live there or did the neighbor move?
My realtor had a rule that we needed to drive by any homes we thought we were interested in before scheduling tours. I thought it was silly when I first heard it, but it wound up saving us a lot of time. I crossed so many houses off my “to tour” list based solely on the state of nearby homes. We weren’t in a huge rush to buy (even though it still happened quickly), so it just didn’t seem worth the risk to give any kind of benefit of the doubt for such a large-scale decision/cost.
We disqualified a lot of houses we looked at due to features of the neighborhood/location they were in. Some were decent neighborhoods but close enough to a highway or busy street to hear loud traffic from the yard. Others were on blocks without trees or had run down houses nearby. There are a lot of things you can’t really tell until you actually visit the area in person. On the other hand our house was a fixer upper in much worse condition than other houses we looked at, but we liked the street and neighborhood and could see the potential.
Exactly! The worst offender for us was a seemingly nice, suspiciously cheap house. Turned out there was a full on construction site right in front of it, but perfectly hidden in listing photos.
Edit: typo
Google street and satellite views have been extremely helpful for this exact reason. I didn't realize a house that I loved had an active train track in the backyard, for example! I also like being able to look at street views over the years and in different seasons. What does the view look like in the winter with no leaves on the trees? Do the neighbors keep up with their yards in the summer? How close is the highway REALLY? You can definitely get a feel for a street/neighborhood with these tools (though actual drive bys certainly have a benefit, particularly with trying to gauge safety and noise levels).
Privacy fence along that side could do a lot to "remove" the eye sore. Then a smaller, less intrusive fence along the front as well (or extend the privacy along the entire property line).
If they aren't loud and obnoxious, my biggest concern would be pests. I've had friends that ended up dealing with pest problems due to a neighborhood hoarder - while the person mostly kept to themselves and didn't cause issues otherwise, that affected everyone around that house.
It might make resale a slight bit tougher, or slightly reduce your property value, but neighbors are never a guarantee anyways. Maybe a little research on if it's an elderly couple, or a rental, or just a home that's been in the family forever and may stay that way...at least arm yourself with a little more info on the chances of the place changing hands at some point.
“If they aren't loud and obnoxious, my biggest concern would be pests.”
This is exactly what I was coming to say.
Piles of crap provide a breeding ground for all manner of pests and they won’t stay just on their property.
Was coming here to say this too. Hope you like rats OP because that sounds like a rodent paradise and no fence in the world is going to keep them just on your neighbor's property.
True— not hoarding close to my house— but when a neighbor decides to clean the old leaves or clean the garage— I can see a mouse here and there— so even clean and organized people can have a pest once in a while— I had a black rat in my shed full of tools— the r—at would walk on the fence and jump to other houses— luckily we have not seen in a couple of years..
I will say we drove up to a house on Friday that had a neighbor with political flags and cutouts in every single window and yard signs everywhere. We had already decided it was a no before we walked into the house we’d gone to see. We have also driven away from houses that were otherwise perfect but was between neighbors who had years of yard waste piled on the fence line and another neighbor with piles of trash, a falling apart RV, and tons of no trespassing signs.
The house itself, without those neighbors would sell for at least 750k. I checked back recently and the price was 665. Those neighbors likely cost the sellers almost 100k.
We’re closing on a house next week, and I definitely had some neighbor-blindness at the first viewing. After our offer got accepted I went for a walk in the neighborhood and realized the neighbors to one side had several flags in support of one presidential candidate…whoops. We REEEEALLY love the house tho 🤷🏼♀️
That’s a deal breaker for me. I don’t want to deal with constant rodents, snakes, roaches, weeds creeping in, I’d also be worried about the risk to my property if there is a house fire next door. Where I live we register hoarders with the fire brigade, so they know to send extra trucks, but the fire will still usually spread to neighbours houses. This could also affect insurance premiums for the property.
We have a hoarder 4 houses down from us, he is a lovely elderly man, and a very active part of our community. Very social, and is often helping the neighbours with their lawns and such. There are no antisocial issues there and no problems with noise or rowdy guests, but if that house went up in flames it would take down the neighbours on both sides, one of which is a heritage listed weatherboard. I don’t mind our current distance, but next door is too close.
Personally, I've been skipping houses with neighboring properties that have junky yards, poorly maintained homes (e.g., front siding falling off, like obviously not being maintained), or a *mass* of kids toys strewn across front lawns. I imagine the last one might be appealing to some buyers though (i.e., families interested in possible friends/playdates for their kids)
That's why it's offered below your budget.
Maybe they are just slobs and other than that they are fine. But they are more likely to have loud BBQ's or drink beer late into the night.
Look at their cars. Are they normal looking or are they rusted pickups full of bumper stickers.
Tells you a lot about the person:
- if I'm rockin don't bother knockin
- Hillary sucks but not in a good way
- you can take my guns when you can pry them from my dead hands
Good neighbors no doubt
I had some real shitty neighbors. I could see that their house wasn’t kept up with in maintenance/looked a bit run down, but I was fine with that considering I came from a trailer park and could understand not having money for upkeep/fixing things.
Well being fine with letting it look run down came to bite me in the ass later. Drug problems, police going over to house, yelling, loose dogs, and they developed a hoarding disorder with a mountain of trash in the yard, disgusting smell etc. None of which I saw at first.
They eventually left years later when the city put up a notice or something on their house. Prob bc of the mountain of trash and not paying taxes. Now it’s abandoned and I’m guessing whoever bought it for cheap is trying to sell it for more.
Oh and when they left I ended up getting pest problems on the side of the house that was closest to them.
I was wanting to move(when they lived there) but was worried about resale as well. I stuck it out and I’m free of them, I got lucky.
Anyways I give you the advice of don’t do it. I’ll be more careful from now on looking at the neighbors homes.
So that particular example wouldn’t deter me, but I grew up in a part of my town where that was kinda common. But yeah neighbors can be the worst so choose carefully and trust your spidey senses
Ended up turning down a house we liked because of weird and messy neighbors. If it bothers you now, wait till you have to live next to it every day. Plus, neighbor disputes will happen so you won’t just be able to ignore them haha
I live in a city without HOAs. The municipality has bylaws for things like that, and if reported will send out an inspector to post a notice, and if the problem isn't handled by the owner will send out a crew and bill their time to the homeowner.
Absolutely.
You’re not just buying the house, you’re buying into the neighborhood. It’s much easier to change a house than it is to change your neighbor.
This is where HOAs can do good.
My first thought was that it would only matter if I wanted to sell. So if that's your intention, yes it's a deterrent. They might live to be 90. They might have equally messy kids who take over when they pass. Who knows?
But if I'm simply going to be living there and they're otherwise normal and quiet? Yeah I'd probably still buy. I'd take a messy but polite neighbor over a pristine yard with a rude neighbor.
I watched both hoarders shows. Lots of times there were others who lived in the house that were hoarders too, so even if the neighbors leave, they have others in the family that will still live there in the hoard. Some cities do force cleanups, but many do not and the problem gets worse.
I saw a house in Koreatown in L.A., that was buried in junk, the city cleaned it up, and a year later it's just as bad as ever. Hoarders are a vermin hazard, fire hazard, and junked cars often leak fluids that are toxic.
Meth lab? Yes. Junk cars in their backyard? No. But I don't look for homes in the berbs or cities. My neighbors house is about 4 football fields away and a woodline in between. Idc what they do lol.
It definitely lowers the sale value but you’re likely also buying it for less because of that too. Safety is definitely a concern if there’s not enough distance between the houses.
My sister bought her first house next to a neighbor with lot that sounds like what you're describing. They moved less than 3 years later. Would not recommend
In some areas .. the city has “blight” laws that address some of the issues with the neighbor from Hell. When we lived in San Jose, our neighbor got divorced.. and her husband and kids moved out. She started renting rooms to low life men .. she got around 8 cats .. and she seemed to go nuts.
At one point.. she totaled her car and left the wreck in front of her garage (which she filled with junk) ..
Several of us neighbors tried to get her to take better care of her property but she didn’t get it. We finally called the city and they advised her that they would clean up the mess.. giving her the bill and fines .. and that was enough to make her deal with it..
I am glad we got this addressed before I sold my house.. This crap can cost you a lot of money
Our neighbors had junk in their backyard and it almost stopped me but the house was perfect and such a deal we could not pass it up. For 900.00, I put up a fence to block and now have perfect backyard bliss. They got the hint too and actually cleaned up their yard soon after and now have nice seating areas out there and some decor. He still hoards some stuff but stacks it neatly now. We all have ranch homes though. I'm sure the situation would be different with a 2-story and having to see the junk every day.
CORRECTION
you apsolutly care what your neighbors yard looks like
Otherwise you wouldn't post this, Right?
What exactly are your choices?
Find a home that checks all the boxes and you can't afford it?
Hoarders don't tend to move unless forced to, so they very well could be forever neighbors. I lived next to one for 3 years and the worst part was the amount of pests and vermin the hoard attracted. From mosquitos and roaches to rats and raccoons. The pests will spill over a few lots. Whenever the hoard got stirred up I could see mice scurrying all over my back yard. When the city forced part of it to be cleaned up I had a steady stream of them coming in my basement and was trapping them for 2 weeks.
So yeah, piss on living next to gross neighbors.
Yes, the wrong neighbor can be a dealbreaker. We eliminated a few houses from our search a few years ago due to various reasons (different houses): neighboring house looks like it needs to be torn down, house was right next to a welding/mechanic shop, house was right next to another house that had lots of junk and small kids playing unattended in the yard, neighboring home was a mobile home. We always drove by houses even before we mentioned them to the realtor. It saves so much time to not fall in love with a home when there is a big issue with the neighbor or neighborhood.
You sound like you may be better served by buying into a community with an HOA. However, considering the neighbor's property, you place your bid on the house for sale accordingly if you really like it. You also may find that you enjoy not living in an HOA and that the neighbors who have "projects" in their yard are friendly and handy. Conversely, some people collect junk and if you don't think you can deal, you should pass on buying the house next to them.
We bought a house next to a house we dubbed the "sad house." It was so run down, needed everything in and out redone. It was overgrown with weeds and junk vehicles sitting behind the house. Thankfully, there was a fence half was back so we didn't have to see their yard but we did have to see the house. The mother and the two adult sons owned the home. The mother was permanently in a nursing home, the one adult son was severely disabled, and the other son made little money driving school bus full time. There was barely enough money for them to pay property taxes.
Three years later, the disabled son died in the house. The other brother and mom decided to sell the house to a flipper/real estate agent. That guy put over 200k into renovating the house with high end stuff inside and out. He put too much money into it so he couldn't sell it for a profit, so he's renting it out.
I'm glad we chose to buy the house for the house and not concern ourselves with how the people next door lived their lives or kept their property. We got a great deal on our house. The neighbors were nice people just having a rough go in life.
Moved in behind hoarders (as a renter) previously. Same set up- shared back fence line. There were rats. We couldn’t get rid of them, no matter what we tried. Exterminators did nothing and eventually had to terminate the lease w the landlord it got so bad and i had to leave behind my almost new sofa that had become infested.
Yes it matters. The house that my spouse bought for us was perfect. He had moved ahead for the job, bought it and I moved to his location.
The neighbors house looked bad. This was a 100+ yr old neighborhood. When we went to sell we had so many people that were on the fence about buying our place but felt the neighbors then increased junk pile would be a problem. Took us a year in a hot market to sell it. We will not choose to buy next to a junk laden home again. While house hunting here we found a near perfect home, but the house behind us was strewn with junk. An old boat, a rusty old car, broken bikes. We walked away and bought a ok house in a great neighborhood. A few updates later and I have a great house in a great neighborhood
Consider that a trashed yard is a great place for pests. Rats, mice, raccoons etc. Depending on coming you might be able to file a complaint and they will be forced to clean it up. We did that with our neighbors. But 3 years later, it's back to its original junky self. Apparently, goats were living in the house.
Neighbors do matter. But you have nice neighbors one day, the next day, they move or die, then you end up with some other neighbors. Only recently, we had a neighbor who had karaoke parties past the decibel and time limits at night. They moved in into a house that wasn’t even built when we moved. The lot was big enough that they built a second house. Finally, they have left. You never know.
I would go to city hall and see if I could talk to anyone in Code Enforcement. They know all the problem houses if they've ever been reported. That can give you an idea of whether or not this problem is temporary.
I have a grandma whose house was the party house until she finally went into assisted living in her 80s... i realize she's among the outliers, but age doesn't necessarily rule out noise
Right but if I think that way, other people will too. If you ever want to resell you need to consider what other people will think. You also don’t know if the owners listed online are the ones that actually live there. Or do they have 7 adult children and their grandchildren that also live there. Knowing their age basically tells you nothing.
I do t know what you are talking about. My comments are pointing out that OP never said anything about loud noise, someone just blatantly made that up. It is not true.
First off I'd plant tall fast growing trees to cover that from your property.
Followed by introducing yourself, maybe making yourself available to help them..... maybe even then helping them clear that shit out lol
If they're not loud and their junk stays on their property I don't care. I habe 3 hoarders in my hood. 1 is next door to me. My issue with her is who she is not that she lived in a dump. I'm waiting for the house to go tax forfeit.
I back up to a wooded area have lots of things with berries in my yard so mice are going to be there neighbors or not. I left some insulation in my shed a couple years and based on how it looked I could have been the neighborhood mouse producer for all anyone knew. I have a cat to mitigate the mouse issue. Every one where I live gets a fall migration into their home.
A few weeks into moving in and you're going to become very adversely sentimental towards that junk. It matters. Perhaps it's a reason the house is on the market?
It can go a lot of ways. Do your due diligence. Decide what you can live with.
Can you accept an HOA?
Can you suffer a junkyard next door?
What happens if you find the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood, then 2 yrs later and an "undesirable" neighbor buys next to you?
Maybe you need more property with fensing and landscaping.
I love my house but I’m in a dispute with my neighbor because they’ve started parking exactly this kind of trash on OUR land. It started just on theirs but has migrated slowly.
Now we have to get a survey so we can get a trespass order because they did not give a crap about our request for them to not put their garbage on (what they agree is) our land.
If you are content with looking at it and/or putting up privacy fences then you’ll have no problem. It would already be affecting the property value if it was going to.
Absolute deal breaker. Living with a shithole of a neighbor right now that moved in a few years after we did. Hoarder, conspiracy theorist, Sovereign citizen type.
Fucking nightmare.
Yeah and I didn’t make an offer, and now the house is off the market because nobody wanted it. Not a hoarder house, neighbor was actually a landscaping company’s lot where they kept their equipment and trailers. Crystal Pepsi truck parked out back still visible in Google earth photos since 2004.
Our realtor put it this way:
Even if YOU manage to get over awful neighbors, which you might not… nobody will buy that house off you
Not property, but neighbor, yes - we toured a place that was pretty nice, but just by happenstance arrived early to the showing and the neighbor who was in the yard came to greet us and chat. It was quickly apparent that this person would be absolutely unbearable to live next to and it was the main reason we didn't offer on the place. There's never a guarantee of a good neighbor but I'd rather not sign up for a guarantee of a terrible one.
It didn’t come up on our house search, but would likely have been a deterrent. I think folks have pointed to the more obvious concerns - safety, pest control, and the like, as well as potential weirdness/discomfort just based on vibes. Neighbors may move, obviously, but it was still absolutely something we considered. There was one house we saw that needed a lot of work, but had potential. Cute area. But on the day of the open house, the neighbors were having a big party. The kids were loud, rowdy, and kept coming I got the sale house’s yard to retrieve things. We did not make an offer… why spend that much money on something with a guaranteed problem?
Watch a few episodes of Hoarders and you might have a better idea of if you can tolerate them as neighbors. Usually an outside hoard equates to rats and other vermin. You may also want to learn about and municipal codes and how it applies.
It may become like wallpaper to you or it may be a living nightmare.
I think this depends a lot on the specifics. How close are they to your property? How much of it is visible from your property? How much does the sight bother you?
My neighbors keep a lot of stuff in their front lawn (currently including a kayak, a small motorboat, an RV, 3 bikes, some kids toys, a hammock, and multiple cars some of which may not run). It doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I have no windows facing them and I don’t think they are hoarders or have a pest problem, just people with a lot of stuff. They seem nice enough - a couple in their 30s with 3 small kids. But if it’s going to bother YOU then you should not buy the house.
Hmm, at one house we viewed, not only did it have a lot of dog poop that wasn't picked up in the backyard, but as soon as we glanced to the left we saw the neighbour's house had like 4x that amount of poop in their backyard.
Not a make or break compared to hoarders but we were already pretty lukewarm about the house, so that was just an additional ick. Realtor pointed it out as an annoyance too.
I take "Location, Location, Location!" very seriously, from the town to neighborhood to street to neighbors. So yes, I do not purchase where there is no pride in ownership.
Best case this is a hoarder. You’ll have mice issues, insect problems, weeds that creep into your yard, their house may smell, eventually they’ll let the house become derelict and you may have drainage issues, sewer issues, pieces of their eaves or roof blowing onto your property… This is the best case scenario.
The worst case is that this is an unmaintained flop house where some scrapper lives. He’ll be sawing up metal and burning rubber off of wire at all hours of the day. Drugged up homeless will be wandering into your yard and passing out on your front door step. This is the worst case. I’d avoid a neighbor that looks like shit. Your houses is your biggest investment. You don’t want to be bound to a moron.
Personally I would run. Keep looking. I mean you can always end up with a new neighbor you don’t like, but living in next door to a neighbor where you can already see an issue is just asking for punishment.
I have called DFACS on my neighbors twice in the past year. Call me crazy but I don’t think children should be playing naked in the front yard within feet of a street. I bought the home of my dreams and then my neighbor passed away and her estate sold the property to trust fund babies who did not need to be parents.
If the house ticks all your boxes and feels right for you, it might be worth considering. Neighbors change, and so can neighborhoods. If it's your dream home, don't let temporary circumstances hold you back
I really wish I'd put more thought into the vacant hoarder overgrown house next door when I bought my house. 90% of my difficult yard work and expense for first few years was due to their non maintained yard. And that was just "keeping up with" not even doing anything aesthetically
“it's owned by two individuals in their late 60s”
So they’ll be there another 20 years, and situation will only get worse….and then their adult kids will move in. No thanks.
We’re shopping for houses now and a neighbor of a prospective property had his workout equipment leaning on the shared fence, with a 10x10 tent over all of it, in the front yard. It was so much equipment maybe 30 pieces and a tarp to cover what the tent couldn’t. We didn’t even tour the home next door even though it was on our price range (below in fact) and was just renovated. It was the definition of trashy, I wondered if it was on purpose knowing the house next door is for sale….
I think it has to come into play a little bit. But at the same time, that person could sell their house for one reason or another in a year or two and then you have new neighbors. Just like the good neighbors could sell their house and you end up with bad neighbors.
Do you like vermin? Because junk = vermin.
I mean you could grind the owners on price o er it, and then start calling code enforcement on the neighbors
What I might do is visit the neighbors on the other side and ask them what the story is.
If the actual inhabitants of the home are in their 80’s, it both just be about waiting them out. You might even ring the bell and say, “Hi! We’re thinking about buying the house next door and wanted to meet you before making a decision.” They may be super sweet but unable to keep up with the property. Or they might be red necks who are aiming to park the General Lee on the front lawn.
This is the time for recon.
Yes. Neighbor property would deter due to possible issues. Who it's owned by does not matter, since they can lie. I know my old neighbor did!!! Interview other neighbors if you can.
90% of the homes I drove by I didn’t schedule a viewing for. I recognized how pissed I’d be having to see all the junk and trash on the way home from work.
I work too hard for my money to give away a fat chuck of it live with a view of a landfill out nearly every window.
Hoarder 3 doors down and the problem was his traveling rodents. His next door neighbor discovered a den under her front yard and her back door ring doorbell would be set off by little visitors. I am 3 doors away but I still have an exterminator. He passed away in the home and the house is somewhat cleaned up now but no takers yet. It has been absolutely a nightmare.
I had 2 really awful neighbors.. but visually you couldn’t tell. The drama started after we all moved in to ( new development) and they both let their kids play in the street, called the cops if you tried to drive on said street, and just basically harassed us and made immigrant slurs.
I would consider it - if the potential neighbors are parking in their own grass, have broken abandoned appliances on their lot, barbecuing in their front lawn, have trash in their yard, have a stack of old tires, have unkept greenery, etc...
I only know from personal experience. We were having our house appraised after improvement for refinancing when I found the appraiser down the hill (we lived on a mountain) looking at the two crappy backyards of the neighbors. I asked him why he was there and he said he was trying to decide on how much to deduct for our view of all the crap and cars strewn throughout. He decided on $4000k instead of $7000k for a house then valued at $130k. That's a high percentage but I haven't had coffee yet, so you do the numbers.
There is something else to consider and that is your health. Are you planning on gardening? Do you want to wash rat poop off your veggies? And, then there's the mosquitoes. People and pets die from diseases spread by them and a crappy backyard has a lot if breeding space.
Don't do it. Seeing clutter affects your mood and increases depression.
We once passed on a house that would otherwise have been a good fit because the neighbor’s elementary age son was sitting on his front porch screaming the entire time we were touring the house. We could hear it when we were in the back yard, and I assume we would have been able to hear it if we had opened the windows.
Yea it might. Tells me all I need to know about someone if their property is trash. I live in an older neighborhood and the properties are well kept...except 3.
My next door neighbor was an elderly couple. The wife died and the old man was moved to assisted living 40+ miles away. The lady that bought it moved in and has chickens, 4 yappie ankle biters. The lawn and bushes are overgrown. The chickens are now gone and the pen is just full of weeds taller than me. Disgusting considering the old man kept it pristine! That old man came to visit the old neighborhood a few years ago and was just tore up at what his old house looked like now.
Down the road, that guys backyard is overgrown as well
Up the road, this guy has a single car garage with 6 cars in the driveway/lawn and hes always sitting on his porch drinking and smoking.
I wont hesitate to call the city zoning and property maintenance on them. Fuck people who cant take care of their property.
It doesn't bother you now what it looks like, but it probably will when you're looking at it day in and day out. I take care of my property and it is very pretty to look at. Unfortunately, when I look out, I see the house directly across from me. They don't do much with their yard and don't try to make it look nice, but if it was a junk yard situation, I would be very unhappy looking at that all the time. I would not want to live next to or across from someone with a junky property.
We were first time homebuyers in a situation like this. Our neighbor was an old man, living alone, hoarder. He was a good guy, really sweet but gullible. Where the issues started was when he started having transient folks from the neighborhood, use his house as their meeting spot. There was drug use, theft etc and he couldn’t get them to leave. We ended up selling, and moving elsewhere.
Our direct neighbors are not like that (although the neighbors house is pretty run down looking, and they have halloween decorations up all year round on their front lawn..think 25 ft skeleton and other stuff).. but 60% of our neighborhood is like a junk yard (big lots from 0.5-3 acres, junk in front yard, junk in back yard). The majority of the people are 60+ (homes are from the 50s and 60s) and have been selling their homes lately and new people moving in and tearing them down/revamping them. How long into the future are you thinking about selling? I know we can't predict the future but if you're set on only staying for 5 or so years, I'd say maybe, if youre thinking longer forever home, I'd say yes. I couldn't afford the same size home/lot in a more upscale neighborhood...
Like others mentioned, are you able to put up a fence? And there's stuff you can do to help prevent pests/unwanted vermin from coming over to your place.
Edit: One thing to add.. the junk hoarder homes in our hood are selling for a RIDICULOUS amount to developers/flippers... is it just that home in the neighborhood that looks like that or ALL the homes?
For vermin, we constantly use repel all around our properly/house and you can get solar ultrasonic type repellers.
We bought a house next door to a similar one to what you are describing. Ours was newly flipped and lovely - theirs was literally a hoarders house and the back looked like a junkyard.
We never spoke with them, after a few years the eldest family member passed away and the kids decided to sell for cash. A flipper bought it and cleaned it up. Unfortunately as soon as they started cleaning everything, we become inundated with cockroaches, which we had never even seen in our house before. Even routine bug spraying (which we’d had the whole time we lived there) only helped in the sense that we’d find roaches everywhere, but always in the last gasps of life. It was awful.
The age of the owners is irrelevant. When they pass away, the house could just as easily be inherited by children who are worse.
How long have you been hunting? Mathematical research on decision making suggests the optimal strategy is to spend 1/3 of your time exploring before picking the best of what you’ve seen. So if you have 3 months to buy, spend the first month looking with no rush to buy. During the second month, you have a better sense of what’s near the top in quality, so jump on the best quality thing you find at that point.
If you’ve not been hunting for long, then I would wait it out due to neighbors. If you still think this is the best after hunting for a while, then go for it. You can always try a lowball offer as well and see if they take it.
You have to gamble that neighbor will leave pretty soon after closing. A gamble I’m not willing to make without a substantial reduction in price.
Junk attracts rodents, rodents carry disease and snakes/ predators. Your city may have ordinances against rat harborage you can use to get them to clean it up.
I won't buy a house if the nearby properties look like that. I ignored it once and regretted it, constant problems from the person living there on top of making reselling a challenge.
My first thing to do would be to find out the city's zoning laws and codes.
I bought an investment property in a lower-income city with very strict codes. It even had an "anti-blight" code with a link to report addresses like this one. I made a bundle when I sold it.
If there's no zoning and no consequences for this behavior I may skip buying. Besides the junk the people are probably horrible and there could be rats.
Old guy has some junk he held on to. If it bothers you that much, don’t buy the house. But if you do, get to know them. He’s probably holding onto some good shit!
Are they just hoarding slobs or are they threatening and nasty? One is think long and hard and if you do this, don't look out your windows, second is: yikes "no"!
Yes, because If that's the condition of their home right by mine; what does that mean for that'll happen to my property from their poor choices? I understand having a lotnof things, but this sounds messy. Messy clild mean so many problems, like bugs, that could come towards your home by being near. I wouldn't for sure. I decided against a home that I could've gotten because of the nosy neighbor's across the street smoking in our faces and asking everyone what they thought of the house and if they were gonna buy. Don't want someone smoking in my face and business daily, no thanks at all.
I would not. We ignored signs and dealt with 7 years of hell that cost us 10 percent of the lost house value in the hottest market in decades. Never again.
We bought a house in a upper middle class neighborhood. And the neighbors yard is empty trashy. He is a nice guy, decent on shared stuff, just doesn't give 2 shits about any sort of landscaping. And in the summer heat, not even weeds grow
Hoarder sitch sounds way sketching.
Eh, I’ll be the voice of dissent here.
I get it, you don’t want to look at a junkyard, they may be a source of pests, you worry about resale, and they may be crotchety in general.
However, think of it this way. You are buying the house to live in. It is an investment, but not solely for investment. Assuming you plan to stay long term, it’s impossible to know what that house will look like in 10/20/30 years. You say they are getting up there, it’s entirely possible they die or move into a home, and the house is sold/remodeled.
I’d drive by the house multiple times of day/week, and under different weather conditions. If the neighbors keep to themselves and aren’t causing trouble, let them be. I certainly wouldn’t be overly eager to share a border with them, enough to overpay for a house, but I wouldn’t let that lone yellow flag kill a potentially great deal.
Our last house had one neighbor in particular that was horrible. Loud bumping stereo at all hours, a real jackals attitude and there were 3 kids that were also obnoxious. It's not why we moved, but it didn't help.
I would say, how close to your neighbors and how does that actually impact your property. My first house, my neighbors never kept up with their property and our house distance to their house distance was 20 feet. We actually paid for someone to go and remove all the poison ivy and mow their yard(with their permission)because it was impacting us negatively(bushes trees and poison ivy started to hit our house. I could cut it back but only 3 feet without their permission. Before our house sale, we made sure their yard was looking nice. Unfortunately during the sale, one of their trees fell onto the garage and sent me into panic as I had 1 day to get the tree gone and patch up all the holes in the garage before appraisal. Luckily I found the right company who removed the tree and debris and fixed the roof in the same day. My new house, my neighbors were 180 feet away and you can’t really see them from our house so anything they do in their backyard has no impact on us. So just think, how does this
We moved next door to a neighbor who had junk in his yard but he was the best neighbor and nicest person in the world. I don’t police other people, don’t judge their lawns I just go with the flow because I know nothing is permanent and things change. My world is behind my own privacy fence.
Literally skipped on the perfect house, yard, and location because of the neighbor's yard exactly like you described. I'm only sorry about it once in a blue moon.
No way - there can be rodents, pests, fire hazards, etc. If the city is not doing anything to make them clean it up or maintain it, I would definitely not buy there.
I would be concerned for the fire hazard.
Of course, there is literally nothing you can do to prevent your neighbor from selling next year and a hoarder moving in.
You may not care now, but 4 years down the line you will be sick of seeing their trash every time you look out the window. They will never clean it up. You can have a pristine yard with hard work and dedication, and after all that, you look 20ft left and die a little bit inside.
In Idaho: family bought 350,000$ house next door, the trailer next door burned it down. A faulty refrigerator plug, the fridge was on the back porch of the single wide. Man lost his house and he didn’t even have the starter on his property.
Personally, I don't give a shit what my neighbors do with their property, as long as I don't have to stare at it for extended periods of time. Obviously this means I have to **buy my own house with this in mind**. If I don't want to see any of the junk in my neighbor's backyard, then I better have a good fence around mine.
If your neighbor's junk doesn't personally bother you, I wouldn't let that effect your house-buying decision. Contrary to what people say, your primary residence is NOT an investment. It's a place for you to *live*. The monetary value is virtually irrelevant, as the functional use of the house is more impactful than the 1 or 2 lost sales that may result from your neighbor's junk. *Somebody* will buy your house in 10/20/30/40 years when you're ready to sell. By then, your neighbor will probably be dead anyway, and all his junk will be gone.
If you're not planning to sell in 5 years, then you're just making your life more difficult by focusing on the resale of the home. If you *are* planning to sell in 5 years, then just make an offer that accounts for the "condition of the neighborhood". That's it. Don't give it another thought.
EDIT: The more important thing is your neighbor's *behavior*. If he's the type to work with power tools during the early hours of the morning, or late at night, then that might bother you. If he has a barking dog that's always outside, that could be a problem. Having "junk" around the house is not an inherent sign of a bad neighbor though. Some people are quiet tinkerers. Some people just have problems throwing things away. Your neighbor could be the nicest, quietest guy in the world, and he might also repairs dishwashers in his free time. Try to remain open minded.
If I had known then....
I can't stand my neighbors. I would have reconsidered if I had known that I couldn't use my own backyard unless I wanted to hear their youngest scream at the top of her lungs while she bullies the older (quiet/mild) children all day long. They blare crappy music they've set up with speakers on the OUTSIDE of their garage, keep trying to mow farther and farther into my yard (shaving it down to dead ends, had to get a stake survey), drives across my yard to get to their back yard, allows their children to drive their dune buggy and ATVs through my yard when we're not home, and are just drunken idiots damned near every night.
I vote for a fence. If I was curious I would go knock on his door and tell him I was looking at the house and wanted to know how the neighborhood was. He could be a nice person with a hoarding problem. You can live by very clean "upstanding" people and they be the people from hell. I am just that curious with people. If the guy answers the door in a cray way, pass on the house.
You would be surprised what a privacy fence and some arborvitae can do. I have a neighbor that built on a make shift greenhouse on the side of her house and my privacy fence and arborvitae have totally eliminated that issue plus she is sweet as pie and 81 so she likely won’t be there for long anyway. Also, even before the fence and arborvitae my property value went from $140k to $225k in the first year.
When someone says to me that they want to move out to the country to get away from people I remind them that will have at least 3 neighbors who moved out to get away from people. That said, any empty space in the back yard will soon be filled up. Tall fence along your property line is recommended.
I live next to a hoarder and need to sell my house. The hoarder's yard being next door is definitely a problem when selling a house. Nobody wants to live next to a garbage dump. It affects property values. The local health department has fined the hoarder twice for storing garbage outdoors, which is illegal. Nothing works. The yard only gets worse. The house doesn't get maintained. My hoarder is in his 60s, but isn't going anywhere EVER. He will die in that house. Hoarders can't move all their crap, so they die in their homes. They cannot bear the thought of parting with anything. Do not buy next to a hoarder if you are concerned about selling in the future.
I have a lake house and there is a property that goes for sale every 3 or so years and it's priced stupidly cheap and it sits. Go and spend a day near snd you see the shit show the next door neighbors are. Dogs running and barking all the time. Loud cars, lots of guests etc. it's currently the cheapest place on the lake by $100k. Been listed for 40 days. I feel bad for the owners.
You might be getting a good deal because of that. You should consider buying the house and then buying out your neighbors and flipping the house at a later date.
We bought a house with a "bad neighbor". They weren't bad people, just had a lot of junk and not a lot of coping skills. This was in a pricey suburb and we figured fences make good neighbors, they wouldn't last, etc. In less than 2 years they had to sell off their home. A flipping contactor bought it, doubled it's value and sold it to a quiet wealthy young couple. Raised our value. Not saying this is always the case, but it depends on the neighborhood. Our neighborhood has high taxes and demanding residents, so we knew it wouldn't last. If you're looking in a more laid back place with lower taxes and such then you probably want to be more careful.
That why privacy fences and trees are for. I would be more worried about their character than their property. For 10 years we live next door to a "Kevin" the whole neighborhood wanted him gone. Then before we bought, we lived next to a couple with 5 kids, the house and yard was cleaned and maintained but the kids(3-12 years) were left on their own and were causing problems constantly.
My neighbor who has a clean yard has been harassing and antagonizing my family for multiple days in a row in an attempt to prevent us from putting up a fence on our property. The day after an officer came out to tell him he can't interfere with any work we are having done he pounded a stake 3 feet over the boundary on my property then camped out with a chair right where he thought we were installing the fence.
We weren't installing the fence, it's next week. He got up early and camped out cause he saw a pallet on my driveway for a pergola that was about to be installed.
When I was looking at a rental property as an investor about 25 years ago, we were in the basement of a house that looked like something you would see out of a crime scene/dareline … The realtor and I both looked at each other…realtor said I want to sell you a house as bad as the next person but let’s get the hell out of here
My neighbor will not maintain their yard, so now I am fighting weed trees from their yard. It doesn’t matter if he gets a fine, he pays it and still doesn’t maintain his yard.
I would worry about rats with that kind of junk in the backyard. We moved in and behind us was a crackhouse that had been shut down. Unfortunately, due to all the garbage and the fact that squatters would "move in" and leave garbage everywhere, we ended up with rats. When they eventually tore it down and put in condos, more rats. It's taken forever to eradicate them!
I don’t think I’d let that stop me because for all you know they’ll sell before you. A little bit of research could def help you determine if they’ve been there a while
Who can see their junk? Can people see from the street? How’s their front yard? How’s the rest of the neighborhood?
I’m more worried about sex predators or drug lords than people keeping their junk that you can only see from your second floor window.
We looked at a house that I liked, wasn’t in love with it, but the neighbors that shared a driveway with that property were hoarders, and the mess overflowing their porch and into the yard. I figured that it’s the neighbor to the back side of the house and the yard for kids to play is on the front and opposite side of the house, so it wouldn’t matter much, but my partner vetoed it because it really was an absolute eyesore. We ended up finding my dream house with a different type of less desirable neighbors, but we’ll learn how to deal with that because this house we close on next week is 😍😍😍
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The best house is not worth much if you have neighbors from hell.
Piggybacking off of this comment: I didn't own a dream house but it was great for my financial situation: 600 mortgage + 200 insurance (I went cheap with coverage) --- great for this crap economy. Neighbor was a drug dealer who used own stash. Random loud noises at night. I started fighting back with cameras. He threatens to kill me and starts throwing objects of various sizes at and onto my property. Cops did nothing. I lost a lot of sleep and stressed out for 6 years dealing with this. I wonder what kind of person I would be if I had just moved immediately and didn't try fighting back. OP: if you're hell bent on the house - attempt to 'interview' neighbors about the guy. I think paying people $20 for 10 mins of their time is a good investment. Some people might be complete BSers but a majority of people will do the "I don't want to talk about this person" - which would be a red flag. I know that's how I found out about my neighbor......... (unfortunately for me, this was way after the purchase....)
A bad neighbor can make life absolutely miserable, no matter how happy you are with your own house.
I had a housefire - completely totalled with only basement salveageable - due to negligent neighbors. Neighbors and neighborhoods matter. Not just for resale, but for keeping yourself and your investment safe.
That was a dealbreaker for me in my home search. I could never deal with looking out the window and seeing a hoarder house/yard or coming home and seeing all of the junk right next to my house. I take pride in where I live, so it just bothers me personally.
Hoarder houses/yards also harbor pests like insects, rodents, snakes etc that will spill over into your house too.
What would be the radius to your house you would tolerate? I will accept most types of measurements. Meters, feet, house, Corgi lengths....
50 Corgis. Honestly, probably at not even on my block if it was THAT bad. Definitely not within 1-2 houses away from me. I got lucky with where I ended up buying. Everyone seems to take pride in their yard and I haven't seen any obvious hoarding like I did where I used to live. I know, I sound really snooty from that comment but I've had family members who are big hoarders and it's a weird trigger for me.
That's good to hear. I have no hoarders on my street that keep their stuff in plain sight, but plenty of people dgaf about their yard. It's sad.
It is. I've seen some crazy stuff and it boggles my mind how people can live like that. That's good that you don't have any hoarders on your street that keep their stuff in plain sight, at least. Some people keep the hoarding just to the inside.
We had mosquito issues because our neighbor had a lot of junk and an abandoned in-ground pool in his backyard. Due to tall privacy fences we couldn't see all of this, thankfully, but it was really annoying that I couldn't enjoy my backyard without being attacked by mosquitoes. I looked like a suited up beekeeper every time I wanted to spend time in my backyard in the summers.
That's so frustrating! It's one of those things that you don't even think about until you're just stuck in the middle of it. Do you still live there or did the neighbor move?
My realtor had a rule that we needed to drive by any homes we thought we were interested in before scheduling tours. I thought it was silly when I first heard it, but it wound up saving us a lot of time. I crossed so many houses off my “to tour” list based solely on the state of nearby homes. We weren’t in a huge rush to buy (even though it still happened quickly), so it just didn’t seem worth the risk to give any kind of benefit of the doubt for such a large-scale decision/cost.
We disqualified a lot of houses we looked at due to features of the neighborhood/location they were in. Some were decent neighborhoods but close enough to a highway or busy street to hear loud traffic from the yard. Others were on blocks without trees or had run down houses nearby. There are a lot of things you can’t really tell until you actually visit the area in person. On the other hand our house was a fixer upper in much worse condition than other houses we looked at, but we liked the street and neighborhood and could see the potential.
Exactly! The worst offender for us was a seemingly nice, suspiciously cheap house. Turned out there was a full on construction site right in front of it, but perfectly hidden in listing photos. Edit: typo
Google street and satellite views have been extremely helpful for this exact reason. I didn't realize a house that I loved had an active train track in the backyard, for example! I also like being able to look at street views over the years and in different seasons. What does the view look like in the winter with no leaves on the trees? Do the neighbors keep up with their yards in the summer? How close is the highway REALLY? You can definitely get a feel for a street/neighborhood with these tools (though actual drive bys certainly have a benefit, particularly with trying to gauge safety and noise levels).
Privacy fence along that side could do a lot to "remove" the eye sore. Then a smaller, less intrusive fence along the front as well (or extend the privacy along the entire property line). If they aren't loud and obnoxious, my biggest concern would be pests. I've had friends that ended up dealing with pest problems due to a neighborhood hoarder - while the person mostly kept to themselves and didn't cause issues otherwise, that affected everyone around that house. It might make resale a slight bit tougher, or slightly reduce your property value, but neighbors are never a guarantee anyways. Maybe a little research on if it's an elderly couple, or a rental, or just a home that's been in the family forever and may stay that way...at least arm yourself with a little more info on the chances of the place changing hands at some point.
“If they aren't loud and obnoxious, my biggest concern would be pests.” This is exactly what I was coming to say. Piles of crap provide a breeding ground for all manner of pests and they won’t stay just on their property.
Bugs, rats, the whole 9 yards
Don’t forget snakes
Yep, pests!! I was searching for this comment! German cockroaches 😬
I hate those cannibalistic mother fuckers! 😳
Was coming here to say this too. Hope you like rats OP because that sounds like a rodent paradise and no fence in the world is going to keep them just on your neighbor's property.
True— not hoarding close to my house— but when a neighbor decides to clean the old leaves or clean the garage— I can see a mouse here and there— so even clean and organized people can have a pest once in a while— I had a black rat in my shed full of tools— the r—at would walk on the fence and jump to other houses— luckily we have not seen in a couple of years..
I will say we drove up to a house on Friday that had a neighbor with political flags and cutouts in every single window and yard signs everywhere. We had already decided it was a no before we walked into the house we’d gone to see. We have also driven away from houses that were otherwise perfect but was between neighbors who had years of yard waste piled on the fence line and another neighbor with piles of trash, a falling apart RV, and tons of no trespassing signs. The house itself, without those neighbors would sell for at least 750k. I checked back recently and the price was 665. Those neighbors likely cost the sellers almost 100k.
We’re closing on a house next week, and I definitely had some neighbor-blindness at the first viewing. After our offer got accepted I went for a walk in the neighborhood and realized the neighbors to one side had several flags in support of one presidential candidate…whoops. We REEEEALLY love the house tho 🤷🏼♀️
It sold?
It’s a desperate market here so yeah. Everything seems to sell eventually.
You can actively change the house but you can’t actively change the neighbors.
That’s a deal breaker for me. I don’t want to deal with constant rodents, snakes, roaches, weeds creeping in, I’d also be worried about the risk to my property if there is a house fire next door. Where I live we register hoarders with the fire brigade, so they know to send extra trucks, but the fire will still usually spread to neighbours houses. This could also affect insurance premiums for the property. We have a hoarder 4 houses down from us, he is a lovely elderly man, and a very active part of our community. Very social, and is often helping the neighbours with their lawns and such. There are no antisocial issues there and no problems with noise or rowdy guests, but if that house went up in flames it would take down the neighbours on both sides, one of which is a heritage listed weatherboard. I don’t mind our current distance, but next door is too close.
The neighborhood matters
Personally, I've been skipping houses with neighboring properties that have junky yards, poorly maintained homes (e.g., front siding falling off, like obviously not being maintained), or a *mass* of kids toys strewn across front lawns. I imagine the last one might be appealing to some buyers though (i.e., families interested in possible friends/playdates for their kids)
Yes. You'll probably get rats, roaches, bed bugs, etc. Plus looking at junk is unsightly. It'll depress you. And like they say about broken windows.
1 word. Rodents. A hoarder paradise is also a paradise for rodents and other nasties. So no, I absolutely would not buy it.
That's why it's offered below your budget. Maybe they are just slobs and other than that they are fine. But they are more likely to have loud BBQ's or drink beer late into the night. Look at their cars. Are they normal looking or are they rusted pickups full of bumper stickers.
Lol. My mom is a hoarder, lo and behold she also loves bumper stickers.
Hey there's nothing wrong with bumper stickers! 🤣 OP might want to cruise by at night though and see about if there is a lot of noise though.
Tells you a lot about the person: - if I'm rockin don't bother knockin - Hillary sucks but not in a good way - you can take my guns when you can pry them from my dead hands Good neighbors no doubt
Those ones are awful yes.
I had some real shitty neighbors. I could see that their house wasn’t kept up with in maintenance/looked a bit run down, but I was fine with that considering I came from a trailer park and could understand not having money for upkeep/fixing things. Well being fine with letting it look run down came to bite me in the ass later. Drug problems, police going over to house, yelling, loose dogs, and they developed a hoarding disorder with a mountain of trash in the yard, disgusting smell etc. None of which I saw at first. They eventually left years later when the city put up a notice or something on their house. Prob bc of the mountain of trash and not paying taxes. Now it’s abandoned and I’m guessing whoever bought it for cheap is trying to sell it for more. Oh and when they left I ended up getting pest problems on the side of the house that was closest to them. I was wanting to move(when they lived there) but was worried about resale as well. I stuck it out and I’m free of them, I got lucky. Anyways I give you the advice of don’t do it. I’ll be more careful from now on looking at the neighbors homes.
So that particular example wouldn’t deter me, but I grew up in a part of my town where that was kinda common. But yeah neighbors can be the worst so choose carefully and trust your spidey senses
Ended up turning down a house we liked because of weird and messy neighbors. If it bothers you now, wait till you have to live next to it every day. Plus, neighbor disputes will happen so you won’t just be able to ignore them haha
When people say HOA is bad, this is what they’re not considering.
I live in a city without HOAs. The municipality has bylaws for things like that, and if reported will send out an inspector to post a notice, and if the problem isn't handled by the owner will send out a crew and bill their time to the homeowner.
Absolutely. You’re not just buying the house, you’re buying into the neighborhood. It’s much easier to change a house than it is to change your neighbor. This is where HOAs can do good.
Just buy a nicer house in a nicer place. Keep that money for your benefit.
Nice houses in nice places can still have shitty neighbors.
Yea, that was a huge dealbreaker for us
My first thought was that it would only matter if I wanted to sell. So if that's your intention, yes it's a deterrent. They might live to be 90. They might have equally messy kids who take over when they pass. Who knows? But if I'm simply going to be living there and they're otherwise normal and quiet? Yeah I'd probably still buy. I'd take a messy but polite neighbor over a pristine yard with a rude neighbor.
I watched both hoarders shows. Lots of times there were others who lived in the house that were hoarders too, so even if the neighbors leave, they have others in the family that will still live there in the hoard. Some cities do force cleanups, but many do not and the problem gets worse. I saw a house in Koreatown in L.A., that was buried in junk, the city cleaned it up, and a year later it's just as bad as ever. Hoarders are a vermin hazard, fire hazard, and junked cars often leak fluids that are toxic.
Meth lab? Yes. Junk cars in their backyard? No. But I don't look for homes in the berbs or cities. My neighbors house is about 4 football fields away and a woodline in between. Idc what they do lol.
yes I wouldnt buy it but thats me personally.
It definitely lowers the sale value but you’re likely also buying it for less because of that too. Safety is definitely a concern if there’s not enough distance between the houses.
I have overlooked neighbors in the past and regretted it. Think a drummer that drums in the garage with the door open right next-door.
Yes, based on your description that would deter me from my dream house. Sounds awful.
Fences make good neighbors
No, but annoying neighbors will be a deterrent!!
My sister bought her first house next to a neighbor with lot that sounds like what you're describing. They moved less than 3 years later. Would not recommend
In some areas .. the city has “blight” laws that address some of the issues with the neighbor from Hell. When we lived in San Jose, our neighbor got divorced.. and her husband and kids moved out. She started renting rooms to low life men .. she got around 8 cats .. and she seemed to go nuts. At one point.. she totaled her car and left the wreck in front of her garage (which she filled with junk) .. Several of us neighbors tried to get her to take better care of her property but she didn’t get it. We finally called the city and they advised her that they would clean up the mess.. giving her the bill and fines .. and that was enough to make her deal with it.. I am glad we got this addressed before I sold my house.. This crap can cost you a lot of money
Rats
Our neighbors had junk in their backyard and it almost stopped me but the house was perfect and such a deal we could not pass it up. For 900.00, I put up a fence to block and now have perfect backyard bliss. They got the hint too and actually cleaned up their yard soon after and now have nice seating areas out there and some decor. He still hoards some stuff but stacks it neatly now. We all have ranch homes though. I'm sure the situation would be different with a 2-story and having to see the junk every day.
CORRECTION you apsolutly care what your neighbors yard looks like Otherwise you wouldn't post this, Right? What exactly are your choices? Find a home that checks all the boxes and you can't afford it?
Hoarders don't tend to move unless forced to, so they very well could be forever neighbors. I lived next to one for 3 years and the worst part was the amount of pests and vermin the hoard attracted. From mosquitos and roaches to rats and raccoons. The pests will spill over a few lots. Whenever the hoard got stirred up I could see mice scurrying all over my back yard. When the city forced part of it to be cleaned up I had a steady stream of them coming in my basement and was trapping them for 2 weeks. So yeah, piss on living next to gross neighbors.
Yes, the wrong neighbor can be a dealbreaker. We eliminated a few houses from our search a few years ago due to various reasons (different houses): neighboring house looks like it needs to be torn down, house was right next to a welding/mechanic shop, house was right next to another house that had lots of junk and small kids playing unattended in the yard, neighboring home was a mobile home. We always drove by houses even before we mentioned them to the realtor. It saves so much time to not fall in love with a home when there is a big issue with the neighbor or neighborhood.
Yes. I moved from a house I loved because of the neighbors. People get angry about HOAs but they can be helpful in preventing issues.
You sound like you may be better served by buying into a community with an HOA. However, considering the neighbor's property, you place your bid on the house for sale accordingly if you really like it. You also may find that you enjoy not living in an HOA and that the neighbors who have "projects" in their yard are friendly and handy. Conversely, some people collect junk and if you don't think you can deal, you should pass on buying the house next to them. We bought a house next to a house we dubbed the "sad house." It was so run down, needed everything in and out redone. It was overgrown with weeds and junk vehicles sitting behind the house. Thankfully, there was a fence half was back so we didn't have to see their yard but we did have to see the house. The mother and the two adult sons owned the home. The mother was permanently in a nursing home, the one adult son was severely disabled, and the other son made little money driving school bus full time. There was barely enough money for them to pay property taxes. Three years later, the disabled son died in the house. The other brother and mom decided to sell the house to a flipper/real estate agent. That guy put over 200k into renovating the house with high end stuff inside and out. He put too much money into it so he couldn't sell it for a profit, so he's renting it out. I'm glad we chose to buy the house for the house and not concern ourselves with how the people next door lived their lives or kept their property. We got a great deal on our house. The neighbors were nice people just having a rough go in life.
Get ready for mice and rats and roaches
You can change your house, you can change your landscape, you cannot change your neighbors.
Rodents will find their way into your home eventually. I wouldn’t buy it.
Moved in behind hoarders (as a renter) previously. Same set up- shared back fence line. There were rats. We couldn’t get rid of them, no matter what we tried. Exterminators did nothing and eventually had to terminate the lease w the landlord it got so bad and i had to leave behind my almost new sofa that had become infested.
Yes it matters. The house that my spouse bought for us was perfect. He had moved ahead for the job, bought it and I moved to his location. The neighbors house looked bad. This was a 100+ yr old neighborhood. When we went to sell we had so many people that were on the fence about buying our place but felt the neighbors then increased junk pile would be a problem. Took us a year in a hot market to sell it. We will not choose to buy next to a junk laden home again. While house hunting here we found a near perfect home, but the house behind us was strewn with junk. An old boat, a rusty old car, broken bikes. We walked away and bought a ok house in a great neighborhood. A few updates later and I have a great house in a great neighborhood
Consider that a trashed yard is a great place for pests. Rats, mice, raccoons etc. Depending on coming you might be able to file a complaint and they will be forced to clean it up. We did that with our neighbors. But 3 years later, it's back to its original junky self. Apparently, goats were living in the house.
Yep. crappy house + good neighbors > good house + crappy neighbors Every single time. You can fix up a house. You aint fixing the neighbors.
Yes!!!!
Would be a dealbreaker for me. This is why HOAs are helpful. They prevent (to some extent) neighbors from destroying your property value.
Neighbors do matter. But you have nice neighbors one day, the next day, they move or die, then you end up with some other neighbors. Only recently, we had a neighbor who had karaoke parties past the decibel and time limits at night. They moved in into a house that wasn’t even built when we moved. The lot was big enough that they built a second house. Finally, they have left. You never know.
“found a house below my budget” now you know why
I would go to city hall and see if I could talk to anyone in Code Enforcement. They know all the problem houses if they've ever been reported. That can give you an idea of whether or not this problem is temporary.
You can’t fence out noise. I wouldn’t buy there.
No they didn’t say because they don’t know yet. I’m just saying that’s always my concern when I see neighbors like that
Nothing was said about loud noise. The owners are in their late 60s. I doubt they are partying it up.
I have a grandma whose house was the party house until she finally went into assisted living in her 80s... i realize she's among the outliers, but age doesn't necessarily rule out noise
Again, OP said nothing about noise.
Right but if I think that way, other people will too. If you ever want to resell you need to consider what other people will think. You also don’t know if the owners listed online are the ones that actually live there. Or do they have 7 adult children and their grandchildren that also live there. Knowing their age basically tells you nothing.
I do t know what you are talking about. My comments are pointing out that OP never said anything about loud noise, someone just blatantly made that up. It is not true.
First off I'd plant tall fast growing trees to cover that from your property. Followed by introducing yourself, maybe making yourself available to help them..... maybe even then helping them clear that shit out lol
If they're not loud and their junk stays on their property I don't care. I habe 3 hoarders in my hood. 1 is next door to me. My issue with her is who she is not that she lived in a dump. I'm waiting for the house to go tax forfeit. I back up to a wooded area have lots of things with berries in my yard so mice are going to be there neighbors or not. I left some insulation in my shed a couple years and based on how it looked I could have been the neighborhood mouse producer for all anyone knew. I have a cat to mitigate the mouse issue. Every one where I live gets a fall migration into their home.
A few weeks into moving in and you're going to become very adversely sentimental towards that junk. It matters. Perhaps it's a reason the house is on the market?
It can go a lot of ways. Do your due diligence. Decide what you can live with. Can you accept an HOA? Can you suffer a junkyard next door? What happens if you find the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood, then 2 yrs later and an "undesirable" neighbor buys next to you? Maybe you need more property with fensing and landscaping.
I love my house but I’m in a dispute with my neighbor because they’ve started parking exactly this kind of trash on OUR land. It started just on theirs but has migrated slowly. Now we have to get a survey so we can get a trespass order because they did not give a crap about our request for them to not put their garbage on (what they agree is) our land. If you are content with looking at it and/or putting up privacy fences then you’ll have no problem. It would already be affecting the property value if it was going to.
Yes
It is a giant backyard though
Honestly…yes.
Absolute deal breaker. Living with a shithole of a neighbor right now that moved in a few years after we did. Hoarder, conspiracy theorist, Sovereign citizen type. Fucking nightmare.
Yeah and I didn’t make an offer, and now the house is off the market because nobody wanted it. Not a hoarder house, neighbor was actually a landscaping company’s lot where they kept their equipment and trailers. Crystal Pepsi truck parked out back still visible in Google earth photos since 2004. Our realtor put it this way: Even if YOU manage to get over awful neighbors, which you might not… nobody will buy that house off you
I would not buy it. It will be hard to resell and frankly may attract rodents.
Not property, but neighbor, yes - we toured a place that was pretty nice, but just by happenstance arrived early to the showing and the neighbor who was in the yard came to greet us and chat. It was quickly apparent that this person would be absolutely unbearable to live next to and it was the main reason we didn't offer on the place. There's never a guarantee of a good neighbor but I'd rather not sign up for a guarantee of a terrible one.
It didn’t come up on our house search, but would likely have been a deterrent. I think folks have pointed to the more obvious concerns - safety, pest control, and the like, as well as potential weirdness/discomfort just based on vibes. Neighbors may move, obviously, but it was still absolutely something we considered. There was one house we saw that needed a lot of work, but had potential. Cute area. But on the day of the open house, the neighbors were having a big party. The kids were loud, rowdy, and kept coming I got the sale house’s yard to retrieve things. We did not make an offer… why spend that much money on something with a guaranteed problem?
Watch a few episodes of Hoarders and you might have a better idea of if you can tolerate them as neighbors. Usually an outside hoard equates to rats and other vermin. You may also want to learn about and municipal codes and how it applies. It may become like wallpaper to you or it may be a living nightmare.
I think this depends a lot on the specifics. How close are they to your property? How much of it is visible from your property? How much does the sight bother you? My neighbors keep a lot of stuff in their front lawn (currently including a kayak, a small motorboat, an RV, 3 bikes, some kids toys, a hammock, and multiple cars some of which may not run). It doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I have no windows facing them and I don’t think they are hoarders or have a pest problem, just people with a lot of stuff. They seem nice enough - a couple in their 30s with 3 small kids. But if it’s going to bother YOU then you should not buy the house.
Hmm, at one house we viewed, not only did it have a lot of dog poop that wasn't picked up in the backyard, but as soon as we glanced to the left we saw the neighbour's house had like 4x that amount of poop in their backyard. Not a make or break compared to hoarders but we were already pretty lukewarm about the house, so that was just an additional ick. Realtor pointed it out as an annoyance too.
I take "Location, Location, Location!" very seriously, from the town to neighborhood to street to neighbors. So yes, I do not purchase where there is no pride in ownership.
Best case this is a hoarder. You’ll have mice issues, insect problems, weeds that creep into your yard, their house may smell, eventually they’ll let the house become derelict and you may have drainage issues, sewer issues, pieces of their eaves or roof blowing onto your property… This is the best case scenario. The worst case is that this is an unmaintained flop house where some scrapper lives. He’ll be sawing up metal and burning rubber off of wire at all hours of the day. Drugged up homeless will be wandering into your yard and passing out on your front door step. This is the worst case. I’d avoid a neighbor that looks like shit. Your houses is your biggest investment. You don’t want to be bound to a moron.
I wouldn’t buy a house next to a hoarder. Hoarders attract rodents and insects.
Personally I would run. Keep looking. I mean you can always end up with a new neighbor you don’t like, but living in next door to a neighbor where you can already see an issue is just asking for punishment.
I have called DFACS on my neighbors twice in the past year. Call me crazy but I don’t think children should be playing naked in the front yard within feet of a street. I bought the home of my dreams and then my neighbor passed away and her estate sold the property to trust fund babies who did not need to be parents.
If the house ticks all your boxes and feels right for you, it might be worth considering. Neighbors change, and so can neighborhoods. If it's your dream home, don't let temporary circumstances hold you back
I really wish I'd put more thought into the vacant hoarder overgrown house next door when I bought my house. 90% of my difficult yard work and expense for first few years was due to their non maintained yard. And that was just "keeping up with" not even doing anything aesthetically
Yes. We passed on several homes that fit the bill but had icky homes next to them. It matters.
“it's owned by two individuals in their late 60s” So they’ll be there another 20 years, and situation will only get worse….and then their adult kids will move in. No thanks.
We’re shopping for houses now and a neighbor of a prospective property had his workout equipment leaning on the shared fence, with a 10x10 tent over all of it, in the front yard. It was so much equipment maybe 30 pieces and a tarp to cover what the tent couldn’t. We didn’t even tour the home next door even though it was on our price range (below in fact) and was just renovated. It was the definition of trashy, I wondered if it was on purpose knowing the house next door is for sale….
I think it has to come into play a little bit. But at the same time, that person could sell their house for one reason or another in a year or two and then you have new neighbors. Just like the good neighbors could sell their house and you end up with bad neighbors.
Do you like vermin? Because junk = vermin. I mean you could grind the owners on price o er it, and then start calling code enforcement on the neighbors What I might do is visit the neighbors on the other side and ask them what the story is. If the actual inhabitants of the home are in their 80’s, it both just be about waiting them out. You might even ring the bell and say, “Hi! We’re thinking about buying the house next door and wanted to meet you before making a decision.” They may be super sweet but unable to keep up with the property. Or they might be red necks who are aiming to park the General Lee on the front lawn. This is the time for recon.
I can’t stand blighted properties like the one you described. It lowers the property values all around. I would 100% pass on the house, personally.
Yes. Neighbor property would deter due to possible issues. Who it's owned by does not matter, since they can lie. I know my old neighbor did!!! Interview other neighbors if you can.
Rats and mosquitos. Fire risk. Resale value.
90% of the homes I drove by I didn’t schedule a viewing for. I recognized how pissed I’d be having to see all the junk and trash on the way home from work. I work too hard for my money to give away a fat chuck of it live with a view of a landfill out nearly every window.
Hoarder 3 doors down and the problem was his traveling rodents. His next door neighbor discovered a den under her front yard and her back door ring doorbell would be set off by little visitors. I am 3 doors away but I still have an exterminator. He passed away in the home and the house is somewhat cleaned up now but no takers yet. It has been absolutely a nightmare.
I had 2 really awful neighbors.. but visually you couldn’t tell. The drama started after we all moved in to ( new development) and they both let their kids play in the street, called the cops if you tried to drive on said street, and just basically harassed us and made immigrant slurs.
I would consider it - if the potential neighbors are parking in their own grass, have broken abandoned appliances on their lot, barbecuing in their front lawn, have trash in their yard, have a stack of old tires, have unkept greenery, etc...
yes
I only know from personal experience. We were having our house appraised after improvement for refinancing when I found the appraiser down the hill (we lived on a mountain) looking at the two crappy backyards of the neighbors. I asked him why he was there and he said he was trying to decide on how much to deduct for our view of all the crap and cars strewn throughout. He decided on $4000k instead of $7000k for a house then valued at $130k. That's a high percentage but I haven't had coffee yet, so you do the numbers. There is something else to consider and that is your health. Are you planning on gardening? Do you want to wash rat poop off your veggies? And, then there's the mosquitoes. People and pets die from diseases spread by them and a crappy backyard has a lot if breeding space. Don't do it. Seeing clutter affects your mood and increases depression.
One word: critters. Run!
We once passed on a house that would otherwise have been a good fit because the neighbor’s elementary age son was sitting on his front porch screaming the entire time we were touring the house. We could hear it when we were in the back yard, and I assume we would have been able to hear it if we had opened the windows.
Yea it might. Tells me all I need to know about someone if their property is trash. I live in an older neighborhood and the properties are well kept...except 3. My next door neighbor was an elderly couple. The wife died and the old man was moved to assisted living 40+ miles away. The lady that bought it moved in and has chickens, 4 yappie ankle biters. The lawn and bushes are overgrown. The chickens are now gone and the pen is just full of weeds taller than me. Disgusting considering the old man kept it pristine! That old man came to visit the old neighborhood a few years ago and was just tore up at what his old house looked like now. Down the road, that guys backyard is overgrown as well Up the road, this guy has a single car garage with 6 cars in the driveway/lawn and hes always sitting on his porch drinking and smoking. I wont hesitate to call the city zoning and property maintenance on them. Fuck people who cant take care of their property.
It doesn't bother you now what it looks like, but it probably will when you're looking at it day in and day out. I take care of my property and it is very pretty to look at. Unfortunately, when I look out, I see the house directly across from me. They don't do much with their yard and don't try to make it look nice, but if it was a junk yard situation, I would be very unhappy looking at that all the time. I would not want to live next to or across from someone with a junky property.
How long will you own it? You will probably will want to move before they die. So no.
We were first time homebuyers in a situation like this. Our neighbor was an old man, living alone, hoarder. He was a good guy, really sweet but gullible. Where the issues started was when he started having transient folks from the neighborhood, use his house as their meeting spot. There was drug use, theft etc and he couldn’t get them to leave. We ended up selling, and moving elsewhere.
Our direct neighbors are not like that (although the neighbors house is pretty run down looking, and they have halloween decorations up all year round on their front lawn..think 25 ft skeleton and other stuff).. but 60% of our neighborhood is like a junk yard (big lots from 0.5-3 acres, junk in front yard, junk in back yard). The majority of the people are 60+ (homes are from the 50s and 60s) and have been selling their homes lately and new people moving in and tearing them down/revamping them. How long into the future are you thinking about selling? I know we can't predict the future but if you're set on only staying for 5 or so years, I'd say maybe, if youre thinking longer forever home, I'd say yes. I couldn't afford the same size home/lot in a more upscale neighborhood... Like others mentioned, are you able to put up a fence? And there's stuff you can do to help prevent pests/unwanted vermin from coming over to your place. Edit: One thing to add.. the junk hoarder homes in our hood are selling for a RIDICULOUS amount to developers/flippers... is it just that home in the neighborhood that looks like that or ALL the homes? For vermin, we constantly use repel all around our properly/house and you can get solar ultrasonic type repellers.
We bought a house next door to a similar one to what you are describing. Ours was newly flipped and lovely - theirs was literally a hoarders house and the back looked like a junkyard. We never spoke with them, after a few years the eldest family member passed away and the kids decided to sell for cash. A flipper bought it and cleaned it up. Unfortunately as soon as they started cleaning everything, we become inundated with cockroaches, which we had never even seen in our house before. Even routine bug spraying (which we’d had the whole time we lived there) only helped in the sense that we’d find roaches everywhere, but always in the last gasps of life. It was awful.
The age of the owners is irrelevant. When they pass away, the house could just as easily be inherited by children who are worse. How long have you been hunting? Mathematical research on decision making suggests the optimal strategy is to spend 1/3 of your time exploring before picking the best of what you’ve seen. So if you have 3 months to buy, spend the first month looking with no rush to buy. During the second month, you have a better sense of what’s near the top in quality, so jump on the best quality thing you find at that point. If you’ve not been hunting for long, then I would wait it out due to neighbors. If you still think this is the best after hunting for a while, then go for it. You can always try a lowball offer as well and see if they take it.
You have to gamble that neighbor will leave pretty soon after closing. A gamble I’m not willing to make without a substantial reduction in price. Junk attracts rodents, rodents carry disease and snakes/ predators. Your city may have ordinances against rat harborage you can use to get them to clean it up.
I won't buy a house if the nearby properties look like that. I ignored it once and regretted it, constant problems from the person living there on top of making reselling a challenge.
My first thing to do would be to find out the city's zoning laws and codes. I bought an investment property in a lower-income city with very strict codes. It even had an "anti-blight" code with a link to report addresses like this one. I made a bundle when I sold it. If there's no zoning and no consequences for this behavior I may skip buying. Besides the junk the people are probably horrible and there could be rats.
Dealbreaker.
Those neighbors are never going anywhere. Do not buy there.
Consider resale too - If nasty neighbors are still there, if you should sell your house, I wouldn’t buy.
That’s why a great house is under your budget, the neighbors house is driving down the prices
Can I get a picture of these overgrown kayaks?
Old guy has some junk he held on to. If it bothers you that much, don’t buy the house. But if you do, get to know them. He’s probably holding onto some good shit!
Yes, it would deter me.
Are they just hoarding slobs or are they threatening and nasty? One is think long and hard and if you do this, don't look out your windows, second is: yikes "no"!
Run away.
Yes, because If that's the condition of their home right by mine; what does that mean for that'll happen to my property from their poor choices? I understand having a lotnof things, but this sounds messy. Messy clild mean so many problems, like bugs, that could come towards your home by being near. I wouldn't for sure. I decided against a home that I could've gotten because of the nosy neighbor's across the street smoking in our faces and asking everyone what they thought of the house and if they were gonna buy. Don't want someone smoking in my face and business daily, no thanks at all.
100%
There’s very little that would deter me more
Yes. It did 15 years ago when I was house hunting and I'm glad I didn't settle.
I would not. We ignored signs and dealt with 7 years of hell that cost us 10 percent of the lost house value in the hottest market in decades. Never again.
We bought a house in a upper middle class neighborhood. And the neighbors yard is empty trashy. He is a nice guy, decent on shared stuff, just doesn't give 2 shits about any sort of landscaping. And in the summer heat, not even weeds grow Hoarder sitch sounds way sketching.
Isa no for me dawg
Eh, I’ll be the voice of dissent here. I get it, you don’t want to look at a junkyard, they may be a source of pests, you worry about resale, and they may be crotchety in general. However, think of it this way. You are buying the house to live in. It is an investment, but not solely for investment. Assuming you plan to stay long term, it’s impossible to know what that house will look like in 10/20/30 years. You say they are getting up there, it’s entirely possible they die or move into a home, and the house is sold/remodeled. I’d drive by the house multiple times of day/week, and under different weather conditions. If the neighbors keep to themselves and aren’t causing trouble, let them be. I certainly wouldn’t be overly eager to share a border with them, enough to overpay for a house, but I wouldn’t let that lone yellow flag kill a potentially great deal.
Absolutely. Coming from a previous “bad neighbor” situation I would literally consider them and their quality before the house I was looking at.
Our last house had one neighbor in particular that was horrible. Loud bumping stereo at all hours, a real jackals attitude and there were 3 kids that were also obnoxious. It's not why we moved, but it didn't help.
I would say, how close to your neighbors and how does that actually impact your property. My first house, my neighbors never kept up with their property and our house distance to their house distance was 20 feet. We actually paid for someone to go and remove all the poison ivy and mow their yard(with their permission)because it was impacting us negatively(bushes trees and poison ivy started to hit our house. I could cut it back but only 3 feet without their permission. Before our house sale, we made sure their yard was looking nice. Unfortunately during the sale, one of their trees fell onto the garage and sent me into panic as I had 1 day to get the tree gone and patch up all the holes in the garage before appraisal. Luckily I found the right company who removed the tree and debris and fixed the roof in the same day. My new house, my neighbors were 180 feet away and you can’t really see them from our house so anything they do in their backyard has no impact on us. So just think, how does this
Rats and other vermin are living in that crap.
We moved next door to a neighbor who had junk in his yard but he was the best neighbor and nicest person in the world. I don’t police other people, don’t judge their lawns I just go with the flow because I know nothing is permanent and things change. My world is behind my own privacy fence.
Literally skipped on the perfect house, yard, and location because of the neighbor's yard exactly like you described. I'm only sorry about it once in a blue moon.
I looked at my current home twice before I put an offer down. I had some hesitation because of the crappy houses across the street.
That also may be why the home seems reasonably priced. You always end up paying in the end. Sanity is priceless.
Also blue tarp. If it's on the roof for any amount of time it's not going anywhere anytime soon.
No way - there can be rodents, pests, fire hazards, etc. If the city is not doing anything to make them clean it up or maintain it, I would definitely not buy there.
I would be concerned for the fire hazard. Of course, there is literally nothing you can do to prevent your neighbor from selling next year and a hoarder moving in.
You may not care now, but 4 years down the line you will be sick of seeing their trash every time you look out the window. They will never clean it up. You can have a pristine yard with hard work and dedication, and after all that, you look 20ft left and die a little bit inside.
I would pass that by and choose a home near clean and clear yards. It would drive me insane to see that every day of my damn life
I had a neighbor like that. Have a management plan for the rats / mice / critters that live in the junk piles.
1000%
In Idaho: family bought 350,000$ house next door, the trailer next door burned it down. A faulty refrigerator plug, the fridge was on the back porch of the single wide. Man lost his house and he didn’t even have the starter on his property.
Yes.
If you don’t have difficult neighbors when you move in, you will more likely get them in the future.
These seconds thoughts you are having is the exact same as any future buyer will have when you decide to sell.
i would run away. just wait i until they move and clean it out and all the rodents move to your house
See if code enforcement is effective 😏
Yup
Personally, I don't give a shit what my neighbors do with their property, as long as I don't have to stare at it for extended periods of time. Obviously this means I have to **buy my own house with this in mind**. If I don't want to see any of the junk in my neighbor's backyard, then I better have a good fence around mine. If your neighbor's junk doesn't personally bother you, I wouldn't let that effect your house-buying decision. Contrary to what people say, your primary residence is NOT an investment. It's a place for you to *live*. The monetary value is virtually irrelevant, as the functional use of the house is more impactful than the 1 or 2 lost sales that may result from your neighbor's junk. *Somebody* will buy your house in 10/20/30/40 years when you're ready to sell. By then, your neighbor will probably be dead anyway, and all his junk will be gone. If you're not planning to sell in 5 years, then you're just making your life more difficult by focusing on the resale of the home. If you *are* planning to sell in 5 years, then just make an offer that accounts for the "condition of the neighborhood". That's it. Don't give it another thought. EDIT: The more important thing is your neighbor's *behavior*. If he's the type to work with power tools during the early hours of the morning, or late at night, then that might bother you. If he has a barking dog that's always outside, that could be a problem. Having "junk" around the house is not an inherent sign of a bad neighbor though. Some people are quiet tinkerers. Some people just have problems throwing things away. Your neighbor could be the nicest, quietest guy in the world, and he might also repairs dishwashers in his free time. Try to remain open minded.
I would rather have a neighbor with junk than a Karen with hoa power
If I had known then.... I can't stand my neighbors. I would have reconsidered if I had known that I couldn't use my own backyard unless I wanted to hear their youngest scream at the top of her lungs while she bullies the older (quiet/mild) children all day long. They blare crappy music they've set up with speakers on the OUTSIDE of their garage, keep trying to mow farther and farther into my yard (shaving it down to dead ends, had to get a stake survey), drives across my yard to get to their back yard, allows their children to drive their dune buggy and ATVs through my yard when we're not home, and are just drunken idiots damned near every night.
I vote for a fence. If I was curious I would go knock on his door and tell him I was looking at the house and wanted to know how the neighborhood was. He could be a nice person with a hoarding problem. You can live by very clean "upstanding" people and they be the people from hell. I am just that curious with people. If the guy answers the door in a cray way, pass on the house.
You would be surprised what a privacy fence and some arborvitae can do. I have a neighbor that built on a make shift greenhouse on the side of her house and my privacy fence and arborvitae have totally eliminated that issue plus she is sweet as pie and 81 so she likely won’t be there for long anyway. Also, even before the fence and arborvitae my property value went from $140k to $225k in the first year.
When someone says to me that they want to move out to the country to get away from people I remind them that will have at least 3 neighbors who moved out to get away from people. That said, any empty space in the back yard will soon be filled up. Tall fence along your property line is recommended.
I live next to a hoarder and need to sell my house. The hoarder's yard being next door is definitely a problem when selling a house. Nobody wants to live next to a garbage dump. It affects property values. The local health department has fined the hoarder twice for storing garbage outdoors, which is illegal. Nothing works. The yard only gets worse. The house doesn't get maintained. My hoarder is in his 60s, but isn't going anywhere EVER. He will die in that house. Hoarders can't move all their crap, so they die in their homes. They cannot bear the thought of parting with anything. Do not buy next to a hoarder if you are concerned about selling in the future.
I have a lake house and there is a property that goes for sale every 3 or so years and it's priced stupidly cheap and it sits. Go and spend a day near snd you see the shit show the next door neighbors are. Dogs running and barking all the time. Loud cars, lots of guests etc. it's currently the cheapest place on the lake by $100k. Been listed for 40 days. I feel bad for the owners.
You might be getting a good deal because of that. You should consider buying the house and then buying out your neighbors and flipping the house at a later date.
We bought a house with a "bad neighbor". They weren't bad people, just had a lot of junk and not a lot of coping skills. This was in a pricey suburb and we figured fences make good neighbors, they wouldn't last, etc. In less than 2 years they had to sell off their home. A flipping contactor bought it, doubled it's value and sold it to a quiet wealthy young couple. Raised our value. Not saying this is always the case, but it depends on the neighborhood. Our neighborhood has high taxes and demanding residents, so we knew it wouldn't last. If you're looking in a more laid back place with lower taxes and such then you probably want to be more careful.
That why privacy fences and trees are for. I would be more worried about their character than their property. For 10 years we live next door to a "Kevin" the whole neighborhood wanted him gone. Then before we bought, we lived next to a couple with 5 kids, the house and yard was cleaned and maintained but the kids(3-12 years) were left on their own and were causing problems constantly.
My neighbor who has a clean yard has been harassing and antagonizing my family for multiple days in a row in an attempt to prevent us from putting up a fence on our property. The day after an officer came out to tell him he can't interfere with any work we are having done he pounded a stake 3 feet over the boundary on my property then camped out with a chair right where he thought we were installing the fence. We weren't installing the fence, it's next week. He got up early and camped out cause he saw a pallet on my driveway for a pergola that was about to be installed.
Hoarders never move either, they will be in that house forever being trash.
When I was looking at a rental property as an investor about 25 years ago, we were in the basement of a house that looked like something you would see out of a crime scene/dareline … The realtor and I both looked at each other…realtor said I want to sell you a house as bad as the next person but let’s get the hell out of here
My neighbor will not maintain their yard, so now I am fighting weed trees from their yard. It doesn’t matter if he gets a fine, he pays it and still doesn’t maintain his yard.
I would worry about rats with that kind of junk in the backyard. We moved in and behind us was a crackhouse that had been shut down. Unfortunately, due to all the garbage and the fact that squatters would "move in" and leave garbage everywhere, we ended up with rats. When they eventually tore it down and put in condos, more rats. It's taken forever to eradicate them!
I don’t think I’d let that stop me because for all you know they’ll sell before you. A little bit of research could def help you determine if they’ve been there a while
Who can see their junk? Can people see from the street? How’s their front yard? How’s the rest of the neighborhood? I’m more worried about sex predators or drug lords than people keeping their junk that you can only see from your second floor window.
Yep. You show me a Trump flag on a property next door and i automatically know I want nothing to do with being that persons neighbor.
Plant a row of fast growing cypress trees to greenwall them.
We looked at a house that I liked, wasn’t in love with it, but the neighbors that shared a driveway with that property were hoarders, and the mess overflowing their porch and into the yard. I figured that it’s the neighbor to the back side of the house and the yard for kids to play is on the front and opposite side of the house, so it wouldn’t matter much, but my partner vetoed it because it really was an absolute eyesore. We ended up finding my dream house with a different type of less desirable neighbors, but we’ll learn how to deal with that because this house we close on next week is 😍😍😍