To ask... (house buying related)

[Septbaby]

... if you would find it weird if someone knocked on your door to ask how you found living where you live?

We're second viewing a property on Saturday and I'm not entirely sold on the location so I wanted to knock on a few doors and ask what the vibe is like etc but I'm not sure if people might think me a bit odd. Would you?

I wouldn't mind but you'd have to catch me at the right time (eg not kids' teatime, bathtime, bedtime)

Also asking specific questions about your concerns (eg: do people stay here for long or is there a crime issue) is likely to work better than "do you like it here" or "is it a nice area".

What mini said about specific questions. I love my area and would happily go on at length about its good and bad points.

If you hang around in the street you'll probably see loads of locals doing gardens, emptying rubbish, pushing prams etc. Maybe talk to some of them? Might get an idea how friendly the neighbours are.

I think it's a great idea.
We did this years ago. So glad we did.
We realised what a nightmare the neighbours would be.
We had a lucky escape.

We had someone who was interested in the house next door knock on our door. They asked questions about the fence and who owns the driveway pillars etc but I think they were actually more interested in what type of people we were

I'd happily answer if asked - but would def be easier if you had particular things to query.
It's the sort of thing you read advice to do but I would never have the nerve!

Wouldn't mind at all, in fact it's quite a nice way of meeting the people who might end up being your neighbours.

I did just that. I knocked on my now neighbours door & politely asked if the street had ever flooded etc ( once I broke the ice with a general question I then proceeded to ask further stuff like crime, unruly kids/ gangs etc ) Bearing in mind that my now neighbours are in their sixties, so I quickly established that they were not going to be the parents of these said unruly kids that roam the streets nowadays. I was lucky, my neighbours are lovely & they were very informative of the questions I asked.

The EA and a family viewing the house across the road from us came and knocked to ask about our road. I had no problem answering her questions.

Ok, brilliant! Thank you for your responses I will be brave go a-knocking

I didn't knock on doors but did chat to people clearly living in the area - had some great conversations!!

Aren't there companies that you can hire that will now investigate a neighbourhood to see if you might end up with the neighbours from hell, etc? Or was that just a piece of fiction I read in a novel a few months ago? (Inward shudder as I realise that books and reality must be blurring for me).

Anyway, I recently had someone knock on my door when they were looking at a nearby block of land to ask if the sewage had actually just been connected to the area as the realtor claimed. Perfectly reasonable.