It is very disappointing when a potential cash home buyer turns down your house after they have already made it through the open house, not because of the asking price, but because your problematic neighbor chose to host a party on the exact day the home inspection was scheduled.
If you have been trying to but still can’t sell your house for cash because of neighbors, you are in good company. It’s like they become bad neighbors the moment they realize you are moving.
If you don’t know how to handle them, you can miss out on a lot of qualified buyers and end up selling the house way below its market price.
We are about to separate these pesky neighbors into different categories to determine what makes them difficult. At the end of the day, you should be able to work around them in a crisis.
The purpose of an open house is to get the prospective cash buyer to visualize themselves living in the house. It makes it easier for them to buy the concept.
If they struggle to hear their thoughts the whole time they are in the house, you may never see them again. This category includes families with young kids, barking dogs, or other loud pets.
These are the kind that won’t rest until they are assured that they know everything happening on the street.
They are the local gossip mill that frequently spreads unverified truths and falsehoods as gossip. They may give your buyers or their real estate agent misleading information you did not sanction.
These neighbors constantly have visitors over, blasting loud music and hosting barbeques or pool parties.
Their friends are always parked on the street, sometimes blocking your driveway. Besides the noise and unsolicited conversations, the crammed parking is how your potential buyers will spot them.
They let their dog roam the yard throughout the day and night. The dogs can be mean looking or are constantly barking loudly. They don’t pick up after their dogs either, so there is dog poop all over the lawn that your prospective buyer will likely step on.
Their dumpy property can be spotted from the street. It is not only bad for the aesthetics but also harbors pests.
It destroys the curb appeal, and when there is more than one house with this problem, the neighborhood’s appeal is lost to prospective buyers. This lowers the market value of the houses in the area and might cost you a few dollars in terms of offers.
This could be simple, like raking leaves into your yard, cutting your shrubbery, or shoving snow onto your driveway. Others will put up fences encroaching on your side of the property line or plant trees whose branches lean over your house or shed their leaves on your yard.
This boundary dispute might not be evident to the buyer at first sight, but they might discover it if you have ever raised it with your Homeowners Association (HOA).
Most of the time, this neighbor will just be giving off dangerous vibes, but you can’t pin a specific felony to them.
This limits how you can notify the authorities, as much as your gut feeling tells you they are up to no good. Your potential buyer can pick up on this and conclude that it’s a bad neighborhood.
This is usually a former ally turned enemy. They intentionally try to frustrate the sale for one reason or the other.
Sometimes the buyer needs them to sign off on shared facilities so that their mortgage can be processed. They will refuse to sign off on any agreement without giving valid reasons until you are forced to seek legal arbitration to force compliance.
Now that you have the experience, you appreciate the potential of a troublesome neighbor to ruin your house sale.
Do your due diligence before settling on your new neighborhood. Just like your prospective buyers will be doing, stake out the new neighborhood and identify your new neighbor. Spend some time there before signing the agreement.
Check for similarities in behavior between your problematic neighbors and your potential neighbors. Keep abreast of the local news to know what is happening. Catalog events, crimes, and how they take care of their houses.
You can engage a local real estate agent with a history of the people living on the street. Make sure you also find out the circumstances under which the previous owner or tenant left
They may honestly not be aware that they are bad neighbors because it is a lifestyle they are used to.
Additionally, if you will bring the matter up for arbitration later, it must be seen that you tried dialogue first. You can call them or send messages or emails to back up your claims in case there will be a need for evidence later.
Choose a time during the day when nothing much is going on to visit them. You want them in a calm state of mind because the first conversation is key to how the rest of the interaction will go. Seek to learn as much from them even as you raise your concerns.
You may learn that they are elderly, terminally ill, disabled, or going through financial distress, so they haven’t neglected their yard on purpose.
You may also find out that they are just unbothered about the neighborhood’s state and are unwilling to change anything. Start building your case from there by capturing your conversations or ensuring there are credible witnesses whenever it comes up again.
If your neighbors cannot maintain their homes, you can get assistance from a local rotary club or offer to pay someone to do their gardening. Think of it as a presale staging cost. You can even store some of their junk in your garage as you wait to move, ensuring their yard is neat.
Consult Your Local Authorities
There must be bylaws and codes breached that the regional health department, the HOA or local police will have the means to enforce.
The nuisance neighbor will have exceeded noise pollution parameters, lit up open fires without permits, and harbored pests and vermin on their property, among other violations.
Some issues are weightier than others as far as the authorities are concerned. For instance, the neighbor’s neglected tree almost falling on your house will be taken more seriously than ugly houses, courtesy of worn-out paint. Matters touching on health and shared amenities like the sewerage line will also be given priority.
This should be the final resort after all other avenues failed. It is a tedious process and requires you to put together a watertight case.
Can I still sell my house for cash?
No law obligates your offending neighbor to help you sell your house fast for cash. You will have to get them on the breaches of laws and ordinances and prove that you were affected sufficiently to require compensation.
You can also get them on nuisance laws by proving that their intentionally unreasonable conduct caused your injury. In this case, the injury will interfere with your ability to enjoy your house.
Unfortunately, your star witnesses may not be willing to participate in the suit because they still live in the same neighborhood as your sabotaging neighbor.
The court will need proof that you tried other means like dialogue before filing the suit. This is why you need to keep records of your communication.
If the problem is their disregard for your boundaries, you can set up a no trespassing sign which is clearly visible so that the next time they are in your yard, you can claim they violated your rights knowingly.
As the seller, you are required by the law to disclose any issues the house has so that the buyer fully understands what they are signing up for.
If you have ever reported the matter to any of the authorities, it will be a matter of public record, and the buyer or their real estate agent might bump into it.
While the law does not specify how much you should disclose about your bad neighbors, the buyer might have recourse to sue you if it affects the house significantly and you failed to mention it.
They may claim that had they known about it, they wouldn’t have bought the house or that they would have bought it for a significantly lower price.
If you want out of the neighborhood fast and your outstanding mortgage payment is small, you can consider a cash offer from a real estate investor. They don’t plan to move in, so they will not care about your neighbors and their misdemeanors. There are chances you will even skip the inspection.
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