Ask any RE pro around and they’ll give you a resounding ‘ABSOLUTELY!‘
Whenever this topic comes up, I tend to envision uncut lawns, overly-weathered fences, or driveways that look like used car lots, but a client and friend of mine recently reminded me of another inhibiting factor if you’re selling your home.
Imagine this; you’ve got a $600K+ home for sale and, as your perspective buyers pull up and get out of their car, they hear a ruckus. They look in the direction of the noise and see the next-door neighbors in their front yard; the husband yelling at the wife to control the kids, and the wife running around waving her arms in the air and frantically yelling back at him.
This may or may not seem like a big deal, but who wants to buy a house if they think there’s even a slight possibility they’d be stuck dealing with this kind of stuff on a regular basis?
This actually happened recently and, needless to say, the seller and listing agent lost out on a sale as a result of the neighbors’ nutty display.
In addition, if that house sits on the market unsold, they’ll eventually begin lowering the price to get it sold, which will bring down the neighborhood comps, including the value of the nutty next-door neighbors’ home.
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So that's what happened! =) J/K
Amy, if you had any immediate neighbors I might wonder 🙂
I'm probably one of those nutty neighbors… with 4 (almost 5) kids there's bound to be some yelling at this house 😉
Seriously though, I've had similar situations where a neighbor totally killed any interest by being overly nosey, opinionated or inquisitive. They really just need to peek through the curtains until the moving truck pulls in. Then all bets are off, lol!
That's funny, Julie. With 4 kids, I can totally relate, and I'm certainly not suggesting that there's any neighborhood in the world that's without it's problems, but helping us all be mindful of what effect we can all have on our property values is my goal. Putting away the trash cans and keeping the lawn mowed are the least a neighbor can do to help, right?
"Putting away the trash cans and keeping the lawn mowed are the least a neighbor can do to help, right?"
I wish it was that simple, right? There should be a service that distracts certain people for a period of time. A sort of 'slight of hand' for especially the loud ones.
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This is so true about your neighbors, when buyers are looking for homes for sale, they also evaluate the neighborhood (i.e. what the other houses curb appeal)
About 10 years ago we were selling our first home. The neighbors (on each side of us) knew that we would be having an open house that first weekend, so they decided to capitalize on it and hold garage sales. It looked like we were in the middle of a flea market!
To make it worse, one neighbor decided that she'd fill a "kiddie pool" with water and lounge in it wearing her bikini and drinking beer – at 11 a.m. Oh, and ambiance was needed, so there was loud music too.
We managed to sell the home anyway…..
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