SF: What Can You Do With a Lazy Neighbor?

One element sellers and buyers alike consider is the curb appeal of a home for sale. But “curb appeal” has many factors, and not all of them are really controlled by the seller. After all, we buyers tend to take in the whole block when we think about moving there, and if the houses to the left and right offer peeling paint, yards dotted with rusting appliances and/or automobile carcasses, our own offer to the buyer (if we still make one) will be lower.

So a lazy neighbor presents big problems to a seller. Rachel Coning Beals of MarketWatch confirms this:

“Neighborhood eyesores aren’t a new or uncommon problem. But curb appeal, yours and the neighborhood’s, takes on greater significance in a nationwide buyer’s market. For buyers, eyesores may present yet one more negotiating advantage. Remember, appraisals factor in the condition of nearby properties. “

And the National Association of Realtors estimates that a shabby looking home can pull 10% off the value of a neighboring listing.

But how does a seller deal with an eyesore when that property does not belong to her or him? Approaching a neighbor to say “Hey, how you doin’? Your house looks disgusting,” can be a fairly intimidating prospect. MarketWatch offers three friendly solutions, and then follows them with some not so friendly. In an effort to keep things diplomatic, let’s look first at the friendly:

• A group effort may pay off. Some local branches of the National Association of Realtors have created funds to help older or incapacitated homeowners keep up their exteriors. Getting other neighbors to collectively rally behind your cause may bear more fruit and may come across as neighborhood improvement projects, not the ranting of a picky neighbor.
• Absentee owners — say, if the property is rented out — may require plenty of correspondence, so don’t wait until right before you put your home on the market. If the out-of-town party is agreeable to changes, it may make sense for you to offer to secure contractors or other necessary laborers.
• Ask for more than you think you’re going to get, said Lee. Your fallback position, then, is that you will take care of making the fixes, either paying for them or doing the work yourself.

If these congenial approaches fail, you might be able to call in some kind of legal authority for help:

“If personal negotiation stalls, or if hostile neighbors become threatening, residents sometimes can lean on municipal laws, administered through the building department, health department or similar entity, to get neighbors to clean up their act, said Neil Garfinkel, a Manhattan real-estate attorney with Abrams Garfinkel Margolis Bergson.”

And if you can wade through them, the munipal codes of certain areas have laws against certain eye-sore making conditions, like piles of wood that attract rodents, any accumulation that may be a fire hazard, or any unsanitary or unsafe conditions. But this last option may be more headache than help: first off, you’ve alienated your neighbor for all time–perhaps dangerously so. Second, the authorities are not always as fast to move as you might like (unless the property in question is truly a hazard to public health), and any resolution to your complaint will likely be very time consuming. If you take it as far as a legal claim, then you have to consider the expense as well as the time you’ll have to spend.

The upshot? If your neighbor is lazy, try charming him or her before you attack. And who knows, that neighbor you thought was lazy might actually be incapacitated for some reason (elderly, sick, handicapped), or too busy to polish his/her home, and will welcome any help you can offer.

**Photo credit: Rusting in Peace