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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is not the flex you think it is, I hate people like you, single handedly bringing down property values.

I am not the PP, but if you think something like she describes materially affects your property value, you truly are an idiot.

Not pp. It does bring down property values and you just don't know enough about real estate to understand this. Don't come here posting as if you are some real estate expert.

Houses nearby may get fewer offers and get a lower price. There are lots of ways this can impact the price. We haven't been in this crazed housing shortage forever and it won't continue.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

And we have to admit, we have all benefitted from the immigrants who do all the lawn maintenance. The costs to hire a crew to mow and do edging etc is so cheap it's ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

My house wasn’t far from office when I bought it. But I got laid off and had to find a job that’s far but other wise a great job with a lot of $$$$. I am not going to sacrifice my career to upkeep a garden.

What a disingenuous post. No one is saying you have to sacrifice your career to "upkeep a garden". Pick up the trash in your yard and hire a lawn crew to mow regularly. You're kind of a jerk if you won't do the minimum if you have all that $$$$.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

"When in Rome..."
If you are "from a culture that doesn't do home maintenance" and move to a culture that does, you need to start doing it to.

Agree. I come from a culture like that. When we moved here to the US we realized how important a nice yard is to Americans, so we put in the time, money and effort to keep the yard nice.

and the truth is you don't have to be in a gardening competition to make your yard look decent. It takes very little money just to mow once or twice a month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This. The comment about brain cells is very odd. They're implying they are too smart to be doing such menial work. Speaks volumes about their arrogance and entitlement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don't mow our meadow and don't rake the leaves to gather. We have planted a flower meadow that ist cut twice a year. Our garden should be attractive for birds, bees and butterflies. I don't care if you hate our garden. I hate your poisened green desert.

I'm not a lawn crazy but people who create "meadows" are rarely honest about what happens. In nova if you let an area go, you're just creating a nursery for invasives. Your "meadow" is probably just a nursery for Tree of Heaven and Callery Pears.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

[Anonymous]

Our neighborhood is the opposite. When we moved in there were mostly middle aged to older neighbors and many of us did our own yard work and maintenance. Over the years a number of the houses have been torn down and replaced with new houses. These people have all maintenance outsourced, including several who pay my teenagers to water their outdoor flower pots that are not reached by the sprinklers. We who remain in the neighborhood feel that we had to step up our maintenance to meet the standards of the new people.

[Anonymous]

"don't care for their house" is highly subjective

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

Lots of different types of reasons, but on my street it's almost all renters who are the problem houses. My street isn't fancy, houses are pretty cheap at just under $1M. But it's very easy to pick out the renters versus owners.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is not the flex you think it is, I hate people like you, single handedly bringing down property values.

That doesn't bring down property values. But a recession certainly will! Sorry to hear it sounds like you put your eggs all in one basket *smiles*

Spouse and I put an offer in on a house in Va and walked away when we went got the HOA docs and saw they had no teeth. We noticed on visits to the neighborhood that houses had damage to garage doors etc that went unrepaired. We got the hoa docs and even went to an HOA meeting and dropped our offer after that.

God, I can’t imagine being so petty.

[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

Is this OP?