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

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

They could be insane.

[Anonymous]

They could have run out of money.
They could be from a culture that doesn't do home maintenance.

They could be me and doing this to not look "rich." Haven't had a single thing stolen since we decided to let the outside of the house go down a little.

[Anonymous]

Maybe they financially stretched to get the biggest home they could and are house poor (I found all the house/lawn care expenses were more $ than I expected). Maybe they are depressed/have a substance use disorder/a sick family member or some other reason that they are not focused on their curb appeal.

[Anonymous]

It could easily be a money issue. The home might have been a stretch and now they can’t afford to keep it up. People make stupid financial decisions every day.

Or maybe they’re cheap and lazy.

[Anonymous]

It's a time, money and priority issue.

MYOB, this is why HOAs were created.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a time, money and priority issue.

MYOB, this is why HOAs were created.

NP- I love our HOA. Ours is a mix of mediocre with no major neglect to pristine. There is a lot of tolerance. I am personally in the middle because I do my own yardwork, do not use pesticides and I'm not obsessive about it, but major neglect would annoy me.

[Anonymous]

They are just self-centered people. I know who you are talking about and these are the same people who freak out at the teacher for reprimanding their kid, are happy to use other parents for rides without ever reciprocating, and brag about being a "hot mess". It never even enters their minds that others might be offended by their slovenly property.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are just self-centered people. I know who you are talking about and these are the same people who freak out at the teacher for reprimanding their kid, are happy to use other parents for rides without ever reciprocating, and brag about being a "hot mess". It never even enters their minds that others might be offended by their slovenly property.

This is oddly specific such that I think you might have a gripe with a particular neighbor 😆

[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.

Slob. Glad I don’t live next to you.

[Anonymous]

I hate this. IF you don't want to do home maintenance live in an apartment.

[Anonymous]

Maybe it’s a suddenly single mom, or someone unexpectedly disabled, or suddenly in a difficult pregnancy. Life happens. It happened to me. Instead of being jerks, my neighbors offered to help. Try that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They could have run out of money.
They could be from a culture that doesn't do home maintenance.

They could be me and doing this to not look "rich." Haven't had a single thing stolen since we decided to let the outside of the house go down a little.

i haven't had a single thing stolen from my house EVER, even with regular home maintenance.

this is not a reason. try harder.

[Anonymous]

It's not important to them!