Meeting the neighbours before buying a house?

[Pigtailsandall]

OK, I'm very prepared for people to tell me I'm being weird or to not to do this, but would it be very strange to knock on a potential new neighbour's door before buying a house?

We have moved from London to a nearby market town where everyone so far has been very friendly. We have found a house which is ideal - it is a 1930s semi, and earlier this week, our offer for it was accepted!

Now, our old London neighbours were horrible. They played loud music and had parties almost every weekend in their garden; they also did some structural work in their house without a party wall agreement. They were bullies who complained about everything - and I really mean everything - our tree dropping a few leaves on their side, the fact that we left the house too early (at 8am to go to work) but then let their dogs bark in the garden from 6pm. So, understandibly, I am very cautious about having nightmare neighbours again. And with a semi, you share a wall and see into each other's gardens etc. even though the area otherwise is very quiet.

So I thought, would it be very strange to knock on the neighbours door to say hello and introduce ourselves before the contracts are exchanged? Just to suss them out (and they might be curious about us too!)

Edit to say - if you lived in a semi where the other side was on market, how would you feel about this?

I would find it odd if I were the neighbour.
Plus, you could move in next to fantastic people, and then 6 months later they sell up, and suddenly you have horrible neighbours again! So I think it's pointless, to be honest.

A bit over the top to knock on the door I wouldn’t want to be interviewed by a prospective buyer but I would make sure I got a vibe of the place another way

If you knocked on my door, OP, you'd be happy with the vibe of what you find. You'd never know this house would subject you to up to an hour of music practice most days though.

Yes were onto our 3rd house now and knocked, even with rentals weve knocked too. Just a quick " hi were planning on buying no.3 and just wondering what you think of the street...let them answer. I also ask "is it more of a party vibe or sitting reading quietly in the sun vibe" - ive asjed adjoining neighbours but also theur adjoining neighbours and the ones directly across street too.

If your cheerful and friendly shouldnt be a problem. People understand you are pay a lot of money.

I would find this quite strange to be honest. I have no interesting getting to know my neighbours and I know that sounds quite selfish. But, I’m busy enough with my family I haven’t got time for neighbours. I don’t care what they do in their homes. As long as they’re not too loud with music, etc, but I suppose how are you going to find that out from a quick chat at the door? what kind of questions are you going to Ask?

I was saved from badly built rental by a tenant in flat next door. I asked him about sound insulation and he was very honest. Bless him

@VenusThighTrap Clearly questions about the house and hood are just the subtext to suss someone out. No one is going to rely on Jim next door instead of a survey!

Yes, that’s obvious. It’s that I would not appreciate being sussed out, hence I’d give such an obtuse response.

We did this. Knocked on a couple of prospective neighbours' doors. Had a nice chat with one, and still friendly with them 25 years later.
They told us about the vibe of the area, the local schools, etc. If our immediate neighbour had the reputation of being a nightmare, they'd have told us. All very useful, and normal in my part of the world.

This should be normalised. But be aware that just like with job references: you might only be getting one side of the story.

I mentioned the questions upthread

But that wouldn't bother me. I'm looking for things like obvious weed/mould smell, big, aggressive dogs (i have a cat)

The dog might be out for a walk or they might get a dog the week after you move in!

Well, you gotta live somewhere and base your choices on something. You might get your ideal job and then be made redundant next year; it's a roll of a dice. But you might also end up sharing a wall with someone for 20 years

Then so it is. You can't future-proof everything but you can do you due diligence and minimise risk.

You are not going to get a true reflection given a brief greeting OP you know the saying you can choose your house but not your neighbours !

100% would be doing this. In fact been invited for a cup of tea by a prospective neighbour!

I'd completely understand if someone knocked on our door too.

Good neighbours are so important to your well-being. You don't want to live next door to the pot house or the annoying little dog that barks all day whilst you work from home, or the students who do karaoke parties to the small house.

I want to encounter some boring normals! Big part of buying a house.

But thats what we are saying - its not "due diligence", its a 30 second conversation with someone

As long as the music practice doesn't start at 10pm I'd be absolutely fine! That's not unreasonable.

There is no harm in doing this , however you have no control over if those neighbours are going to stay there long term, so it seems abit pointless ?

Honestly if someone knocked on my door to ask about the neighbourhood, I wouldn’t know what to say as we tend to keep ourselves to ourselves.

Don’t forget you will only get one view though - if there are issues between households then you won’t get an unbiased view.

Would you pull out if you heard something negative?

I'd definitely say something to put you off in that case. Fed up of having to clear my garden of cat poo.

we moved out of London and the first place we moved to was not great for a lot of reasons
when we moved again slightly further out, on the second time of viewing the property one of the neighbours (not next door) came out to talk to us (aka as suss us out) and asked if we might be moving in etc (I think they thought we’d be okay neighbours because they said oh it would be lovely if you came here - we’ve lived here five years now- very peaceful and nice neighbours

I would be tempted to make up something I think.

Those of you who think it’s okay, do you go and introduce yourselves to people when they move in?

I am always amazed that so many people do that, as if living in proximity to others means you have to be involved socially with them

our neighbours are selling their house and have had an offer accepted. I’m feeling a lot of trepidation about the new neighbours and am gutted our current ones are moving because we’ve lived in absolute harmony for 14 years.
I would be very happy if the new neighbours to be popped by. I’d find it reassuring that they wanted to check us out because it would reassure me they don’t want nightmare neighbours either!
So just on the off chance you are buying the house next door to me, definitely knock and say hello! 😁

What if they are no trouble but just don’t want to bother meeting the neighbours?