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Having bad neighbours in an equally bad neighbourhood can feel like you are living in a perpetual nightmare. However, if you fail to check out your neighbourhood and your neighbours prior to moving there, you will soon find out that it is more than premature grey hair that they are inducing on you, but also reducing the value of your property. Here are five tips to swerve clear and spot a bad neighbour and a bad neighbourhood.
Is it sanitary for your sanity?
This is an obvious sign of whether you are driving in a good or bad neighbourhood. No matter how affordable the properties on sale might be if it in a messy neighbourhood it can affect the value of your property. A messy neighbourhood can affect the value of your property by up to 10% of the sale of the house. It will also be one sure way to push buyers away from investing in your house.
High listings in the area
If you see many for sale signs up in the neighbourhood this is another sign that it’s not a good place to invest in. If there are similar properties listed for sale at the same time this can affect the value of your property. If the properties in the area are selling for close to nothing, then this is the tell-tale signs that you should take your business elsewhere too.
Property markets that have high listings for similar properties can make it hard for you to sell your house. Even if you do manage to sell it, it will be at an even lower price than what you originally bought it for.
Neighbours who don’t take care of their property
Your house could be renovated into something that comes out of a magazine, but if your neighbours don’t play catch up by keeping their homes presentable it can drag the value of your property down. The exterior appearance of your home that is tied to the landscape can influence your home value by 11%. Living near homes that are an eyesore can chase away potential buyers who wouldn’t want to live near homes that are falling apart.
Neighbours who are rowdy
A rowdy neighbour might be brilliant as the protagonist of a comedy movie, but in real life, they can make your milk sour. If you have neighbours who couldn’t care what their front lawn looks like, or even bat an eyelid of the overgrown plantation that could be harbouring pests it can affect you by dragging your house value down. If you are a buyer still on a look out, it is best to know what type of neighbours you have by driving by your potential house during the day and at night to measure noise levels during the week and on weekends.
Legal issues
If there is a high number of people default in their mortgage payments in the neighbourhood, it can affect the value of your property as time goes on. Other problems that may arise are legal problems such as living near a sex offender. One look at the communities database of listed sex offenders can give your potential buyer a run. Furthermore, if the crime rate is high in the neighbourhood your chances of finding someone to sell your home will decrease even more.
You need to conduct adequate research on the neighbourhood and the people you will be living next too. Rushing into things will be doing yourself a huge injustice to yourself and your home loan that you have to pay off.
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