Would you buy a house next to this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe if you hire her to sell your house or let her know she can bring buyers through, she will agree to undecorate her yard!

Haha. I've thought about offering to take it all down (and later put it all back up) for her, just to get through our sale. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

I live pretty close to this house, though not next door, and walk by often. It's never bothered me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mind your own business.

You might be able to address the food trash. Unlikely to be able to address out-of-season holiday decorations.

Sorry, we plan to sell our house in the next 12 months. This feels like our business as it will affect how prospective buyers perceive our home's value.

Your neighbors don’t have any duty to maintain your property values. You should’ve bought in an HOA if you weren’t prepared to live near people who keep out Halloween decorations year round.

Just to be clear, it is now 'decaying' halloween decorations, Xmas decorations, and giant Easter decorations, plus weathered fabric draping from a party.

Thanks to those that have offered empathy. Next house we buy will be in an HOA. Can't always anticipate how neighbors will care for the place we call home.

Yeah, sorry. It’s generally legally to have a bunch of old, seasonal decorations left out year round. She doesn’t have a duty to help you sell your house at the highest price.

You can politely ask her if she can put the decorations away while your house is on the market. You could offer to pay to put them in storage and move them back if you’re so concerned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does she work for a company? If you've already politely spoken to her, I would call her employer and tell them you're going to post negative reviews about her unless she cleans up her yard.

I don't mind neighbors who don't have a green thumb, who have ugly lawn furniture, who store broken cars in their driveway, or who take too long to take down their holiday decor. But 6.5 years of 6 foot skeletons isn't reasonable. Come on now.

Omg please call my employer and tell them I have decaying decorations in my yard. Their reaction would be hilarious. Also the reviews would get removed as irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I've considered mental health and, of course, financial reasons. Neighbors have talked to her directly about this. Her child goes to an expensive private school, and the business seems to be thriving. It does not seem that mental health is the cause. It is just a mystery. Our neighborhood has been gracious, for many years, and saw the humor when the skeletons were the only items on the lawn, but now they are in disrepair, and there are layers of other holiday decorations in addition to the trash. We will contact the city about rodents. Thx.

Of course it's mental illness. Successful people can have ADHD/autism and be hoarders and generally unable to keep a home. The mentally ill aren't automatically disabled people in group homes, OP. My very financially successful husband has a hoarding problem and would totally let the house and yard go to seed if I wasn't there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does she work for a company? If you've already politely spoken to her, I would call her employer and tell them you're going to post negative reviews about her unless she cleans up her yard.

I don't mind neighbors who don't have a green thumb, who have ugly lawn furniture, who store broken cars in their driveway, or who take too long to take down their holiday decor. But 6.5 years of 6 foot skeletons isn't reasonable. Come on now.

Omg please call my employer and tell them I have decaying decorations in my yard. Their reaction would be hilarious. Also the reviews would get removed as irrelevant.

Are you a realtor responsible for marketing and selling residential properties?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I've considered mental health and, of course, financial reasons. Neighbors have talked to her directly about this. Her child goes to an expensive private school, and the business seems to be thriving. It does not seem that mental health is the cause. It is just a mystery. Our neighborhood has been gracious, for many years, and saw the humor when the skeletons were the only items on the lawn, but now they are in disrepair, and there are layers of other holiday decorations in addition to the trash. We will contact the city about rodents. Thx.

Of course it's mental illness. Successful people can have ADHD/autism and be hoarders and generally unable to keep a home. The mentally ill aren't automatically disabled people in group homes, OP. My very financially successful husband has a hoarding problem and would totally let the house and yard go to seed if I wasn't there.

The irony is that she is successful in real estate and staging. When she goes to sell this home, we can guess that her yard will be well-kept and staged. In the meantime, neighbors selling around her will suffer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does she work for a company? If you've already politely spoken to her, I would call her employer and tell them you're going to post negative reviews about her unless she cleans up her yard.

I don't mind neighbors who don't have a green thumb, who have ugly lawn furniture, who store broken cars in their driveway, or who take too long to take down their holiday decor. But 6.5 years of 6 foot skeletons isn't reasonable. Come on now.

Omg please call my employer and tell them I have decaying decorations in my yard. Their reaction would be hilarious. Also the reviews would get removed as irrelevant.

Are you a realtor responsible for marketing and selling residential properties?

How she keeps her own home is irrelevant to how she markets and sells other people’s properties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I've considered mental health and, of course, financial reasons. Neighbors have talked to her directly about this. Her child goes to an expensive private school, and the business seems to be thriving. It does not seem that mental health is the cause. It is just a mystery. Our neighborhood has been gracious, for many years, and saw the humor when the skeletons were the only items on the lawn, but now they are in disrepair, and there are layers of other holiday decorations in addition to the trash. We will contact the city about rodents. Thx.

Of course it's mental illness. Successful people can have ADHD/autism and be hoarders and generally unable to keep a home. The mentally ill aren't automatically disabled people in group homes, OP. My very financially successful husband has a hoarding problem and would totally let the house and yard go to seed if I wasn't there.

The irony is that she is successful in real estate and staging. When she goes to sell this home, we can guess that her yard will be well-kept and staged. In the meantime, neighbors selling around her will suffer.

That’s how property rights work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I've considered mental health and, of course, financial reasons. Neighbors have talked to her directly about this. Her child goes to an expensive private school, and the business seems to be thriving. It does not seem that mental health is the cause. It is just a mystery. Our neighborhood has been gracious, for many years, and saw the humor when the skeletons were the only items on the lawn, but now they are in disrepair, and there are layers of other holiday decorations in addition to the trash. We will contact the city about rodents. Thx.

Of course it's mental illness. Successful people can have ADHD/autism and be hoarders and generally unable to keep a home. The mentally ill aren't automatically disabled people in group homes, OP. My very financially successful husband has a hoarding problem and would totally let the house and yard go to seed if I wasn't there.

The irony is that she is successful in real estate and staging. When she goes to sell this home, we can guess that her yard will be well-kept and staged. In the meantime, neighbors selling around her will suffer.

Sounds very much like ADHD and hoarding: she's great at short-term tasks (putting a home up for sale and making it look nice), but bad at long-term upkeep. I think she can't even "see" what's wrong with her home compared to the neighbors', OP. Not unless you very specifically point out the differences, and then she'd feel momentarily bad about it, but wouldn't have the bandwidth to actually do much, unless there was a deadline to work towards and a financial incentive. There's a reason she's good at her job, it's what her brain naturally tends towards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does she work for a company? If you've already politely spoken to her, I would call her employer and tell them you're going to post negative reviews about her unless she cleans up her yard.

I don't mind neighbors who don't have a green thumb, who have ugly lawn furniture, who store broken cars in their driveway, or who take too long to take down their holiday decor. But 6.5 years of 6 foot skeletons isn't reasonable. Come on now.

Omg please call my employer and tell them I have decaying decorations in my yard. Their reaction would be hilarious. Also the reviews would get removed as irrelevant.

Are you a realtor responsible for marketing and selling residential properties?

How she keeps her own home is irrelevant to how she markets and sells other people’s properties.

Who cares? She's being outride rude, whether intentional or not. Her neighbors have tolerated it for 6 years and kindly asked her about it. Whatever they do at this point isn't worse than what she is doing to them. There may not be rules against what can go in her yard, but there's also no rules about asking her to address it. These are decaying 15 foot skeletons, people, overlaid with other holiday decor. This lady is nuts!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does she work for a company? If you've already politely spoken to her, I would call her employer and tell them you're going to post negative reviews about her unless she cleans up her yard.

I don't mind neighbors who don't have a green thumb, who have ugly lawn furniture, who store broken cars in their driveway, or who take too long to take down their holiday decor. But 6.5 years of 6 foot skeletons isn't reasonable. Come on now.

Omg please call my employer and tell them I have decaying decorations in my yard. Their reaction would be hilarious. Also the reviews would get removed as irrelevant.

Are you a realtor responsible for marketing and selling residential properties?

How she keeps her own home is irrelevant to how she markets and sells other people’s properties.

Who cares? She's being outride rude, whether intentional or not. Her neighbors have tolerated it for 6 years and kindly asked her about it. Whatever they do at this point isn't worse than what she is doing to them. There may not be rules against what can go in her yard, but there's also no rules about asking her to address it. These are decaying 15 foot skeletons, people, overlaid with other holiday decor. This lady is nuts!

The best you can do is ask, and it sounds like she’s been asked before declined. OP can ask again, but it sounds unlikely to be successful. Not much more you can do. You can’t force people to manage their property the way you want if they’re not breaking the law. It’s the price of freedom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I've considered mental health and, of course, financial reasons. Neighbors have talked to her directly about this. Her child goes to an expensive private school, and the business seems to be thriving. It does not seem that mental health is the cause. It is just a mystery. Our neighborhood has been gracious, for many years, and saw the humor when the skeletons were the only items on the lawn, but now they are in disrepair, and there are layers of other holiday decorations in addition to the trash. We will contact the city about rodents. Thx.

Of course it's mental illness. Successful people can have ADHD/autism and be hoarders and generally unable to keep a home. The mentally ill aren't automatically disabled people in group homes, OP. My very financially successful husband has a hoarding problem and would totally let the house and yard go to seed if I wasn't there.

No, not everyone with an ugly house and yard has mental illness. Generally they just don’t really notice their surroundings and have no sense of aesthetics. They’re the same people who wear pajamas in public, they are wrapped up in their own little world and the opinions of others never cross their minds.

[Anonymous]

Don’t go to her employer, OP. Tell her that you’re selling your house and you’d love to help her put away her decorations.

Our formerly glorious yard is mostly weeds due to long term health problems. ( No holiday trash, though.) Due to wild healthcare costs, we can’t pay someone else to weed it. Basically we moved and then our lives imploded a few months later. We run the lawnmower and remove big branches . We rake 1x/year. Another neighbor also had severe health problems and his yard suffered, too. His yard was almost entirely moss. Despite bordering *two* problem lawns, our former neighbors had no problem selling the house when they divorced. The price was very fair, given the comps.

TL/DR: I think if you can clean up the decor, you’ll be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe if you hire her to sell your house or let her know she can bring buyers through, she will agree to undecorate her yard!

Haha. I've thought about offering to take it all down (and later put it all back up) for her, just to get through our sale. Ugh.

Do it. We offered something similar to a similar neighbor when they had something on their property impacting our ability to sell - we offered to pay 100% to fix it and they accepted immediately and were really grateful. It’s now fixed and not an issue.