People who move into nice neighborhoods and don’t care for the house

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In our neighborhood the home was an investment property, when the HOA tried to contact them they weren't able to locate anyone in the States, just an address Shanghai.

Will they be fined?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am one of these people and ran into hard times. Lost job, lost husband.

Try not to judge, OP.

Sounds like you have time to maintain the yard with no husband or job

A reminder that there is evil and true nastiness in the world.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:No time! I commute and work long hours to afford this house. I barely have energy to sleep let along caring for a house.

This is the part that I don’t understand. Wouldn’t it be better to sell the large house that is holding you prisoner and buy something smaller closer to your office? You are in a race to nowhere.

Exactly. And if you can afford a large expensive house, you can better afford a medium sized less expensive house that you can afford lawn care and maintenance for. Money and laziness are no excuse.

No worries, I am not doing law care in a small house either. It’s a waste of brain cells. No one is getting out of a historical low mortgage rate to please their average wit neighbors who have no hobbies other than criticizing some grass 😬

So a fancy way of admitting your laziness.

I can't speak for the PP, but the idea that you're lazy if you don't keep your lawn immaculate is dumb. You don't know what's going on in their life. If they've got some kids, a dying parent, a full time job, and sit on the board of several organizations, that's not lazy. Something's got to give, and lawn maintenance is easily the least important of these. Stay mad.

I’m not one of the PP’s who is mad or thinks it affects neighborhood home values. I just find it fascinating from a behavioral perspective. If that happened to me I would downsize/move to something low maintenance.

But my lawn service is $80/month, plus twice a year yard cleanups at $500 each. It’s just not that expensive at all. Under $2k a year. People who are down to their last $2k are too financially stretched to live in a big expensive house. It doesn’t “make me mad” - it’s just really bad financial decision making.

The point is it’s not even on their mind. It’s not necessarily a financial thing at all.

Correct. It's like the mom who shows up to pickup in sausage-casing leggings, topknot and ratty sweatshirt. It's not that she thinks she looks good, it's that the opinions of others are the last thing on her mind.

Are these the same people who put their car magnets on crooked and let their toddlers put stickers all over the inside window of the car?

No, that's your SIL.

[Anonymous]

I'm this person (except I am a renter) surrounded by retirees who garden all day. I'm sure they hate that I am the "ugly house", but its not my duty to maintain the front yard (and especially not to their standards).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am one of these people and ran into hard times. Lost job, lost husband.

Try not to judge, OP.

Sounds like you have time to maintain the yard with no husband or job

Karma coming your way

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They might be Asians.
My Asian mother moved into a nice neighborhood and has been ruining it for her neighbors. Asians don't have a history of a big lawn on their property and didn't ache to imitate the English estates via the big lawn. Look at any Asian home with the laundry strung out on the balcony and AC condenser perched wherever is most convenient. All sorts of knick knacks will be set out on the stoop to dry. My mother sometimes hung salted fish in the backyard.
My real estate agent Asian uncle looked at her house and side whispered to me that he could tell by appearances if a Chinese person owned the property.

Maybe, but I have seen examples of every race capable of neglecting their yards. I am an Asian but Indian American variety, I grew up in a big bungalow back in India and I am an avid gardener so lawn/garden maintenance is non negotiable for me, also I hate clutter so it's a personality issue as well. I have two Chinese neighbors, one is extremely particular in maintaining his property and his yard is always in top shape, the other family is more chill and many times have overgrown grass although their vegetable garden is to die for, so priorities I guess.

OTOH I have a German neighbor and all his yard upkeep is done with military precision, not a single blade of grass is overgrown, I am sure he has a schedule in excel lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am one of these people and ran into hard times. Lost job, lost husband.

Try not to judge, OP.

Sounds like you have time to maintain the yard with no husband or job

We just lost an immediate family member and it has torn our world apart. Obviously. I can't believe someone would be so callous as to say something like this.

[Anonymous]

The state of the world at the moment, and THIS is what bothers you, OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They buy a relatively large/expensive home but then hardly ever cut the grass, don’t rake the leaves or ever pull weeds or prune shrubs. They let the driveway fall into disrepair, don’t replace a missing shutter, let the trim rot, etc.

What is going on there? What is the mindset/backstory? I’m not talking a one-off like someone was out of town or busy at work or had a baby or something. I mean like years and years of this.

It shouldn’t be a money issue as they could have bought a smaller and less expensive home.

What do you think?

This part includes your wrong assumptions. Depending on geography, features or other factors, they may not have been able to buy a smaller and less expensive home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm this person (except I am a renter) surrounded by retirees who garden all day. I'm sure they hate that I am the "ugly house", but its not my duty to maintain the front yard (and especially not to their standards).

This has been me in the past. We had three young kids and student loans. We got into the house, we ended up making it beautiful (uhh just before we left). We also had a leaning curve in the new state we were in.

My retired neighbor would always make remarks to me. She was a nice lady otherwise, but … she had all day to work in the yard and then relax for hours watching tv.
I was just hoping my toddler wasn’t going into the street if we spent time in the front yard. My DH was in a job standing on his feet all day. We always took care of lawn and trimming, but we couldn’t handle figuring out why a patch of grass was dying. (She showed us, it was a particular worm).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in a neighborhood where homes go for 2-5M. Our yard is a glorious mess: as in, my husband and I coddle our handpicked prize roses, jasmine, mock-orange, lilac, Japanese maples, etc, but leave empty plant containers and potting soil bags lying around. Debris come from the busy street into our front yard and we don't immediately pick them up. And my husband, responsible for cutting grass, lets it go to seed at least once per growing season. We don't rake diligently and when we do, we use leaf debris for mulch, as nature intended - no buying mulch ever.

The driveway is damaged because lots of people are surprised by the one-way sign and turn around in our driveway - I am not fixing that, it's going to get damaged all over again.

People probably excuse us because we have the smallest house in the neighborhood, and they think we're poor. Not at all! We'd the same on a large property with a large house. We love plants but we don't care about your ridiculous standards for lawn and whatnot.

So gripe away, OP! You make me laugh.

They are just waiting for you to move so it can be a teardown and a nice new home with actual landscaping can take its place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They might be Asians.
My Asian mother moved into a nice neighborhood and has been ruining it for her neighbors. Asians don't have a history of a big lawn on their property and didn't ache to imitate the English estates via the big lawn. Look at any Asian home with the laundry strung out on the balcony and AC condenser perched wherever is most convenient. All sorts of knick knacks will be set out on the stoop to dry. My mother sometimes hung salted fish in the backyard.
My real estate agent Asian uncle looked at her house and side whispered to me that he could tell by appearances if a Chinese person owned the property.

Maybe, but I have seen examples of every race capable of neglecting their yards. I am an Asian but Indian American variety, I grew up in a big bungalow back in India and I am an avid gardener so lawn/garden maintenance is non negotiable for me, also I hate clutter so it's a personality issue as well. I have two Chinese neighbors, one is extremely particular in maintaining his property and his yard is always in top shape, the other family is more chill and many times have overgrown grass although their vegetable garden is to die for, so priorities I guess.

OTOH I have a German neighbor and all his yard upkeep is done with military precision, not a single blade of grass is overgrown, I am sure he has a schedule in excel lol.

Haha! This was my German dad to a T.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They could be insane.

lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Their parents outsourced everything but they themselves don’t have the budget to do so. But they never learned to do anything on their own.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are a number of people in my area who have these huge, gorgeous houses and NO landscaping. I keep saying I’m gonna go during the night and just put some boxwood in the front. I think there are people who only care how the inside looks.

I see some of those houses in some neighborhoods and don't get it. Usually the builder will at least put in some foundation plants. Houses with no foundation plants look weird and naked.

I know! Four Million dollar house and grass right up to the house. It makes me irrationally crazy.