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Original poster

How do you check out your new next door neighbours before you buy?

22 replies

MaternityNurse007 · 01/01/2022 18:29

I have heard tonns of horror stories recently about bad neighbours etc and i guess pandemic and working from home made it worse. I am planning to move in the near future and other than walking up and down the street as much as possible or being cheeky and knock on next door neighbours' door saying i am planning to buy and just wanting to say hi and ask about the street/ location/ schools/ etc , what does people do or can do to figure out if you going to be ok with your neighbours? I know things can change but we are such easy going people and would absolutely can not and don't want to end up with some antisocial neighbours or smthing similar. Any idea is an idea. Thanks

OP posts:

Cyberworrier · 01/01/2022 18:32

Knocking on the doors of neighbours as you've said is good. I'd also suggest going by the property at different times of day. Just to get a feel for how quiet the street is at night etc. Easier to spot anti social behaviour and noisy neighbours potentially in summer when windows are open and people are outside more.
But hopefully if you speak to neighbours you can be fairly safe!

Eloraa · 01/01/2022 18:36

The house next door to us has just sold, and we had a few viewers knock on our door with questions about parking or bins.

I think they were actually scoping us out (which was fine by me as were normal!).

CardRoomGreen · 01/01/2022 18:39

Yup, I'm sure introverted but plucked up the courage to knock on doors and discovered that our neighbours are lovely. 8 years on I'm still glad I did though because some further down are a bit odd and I wouldn't really like them as direct neighbours so much.

Totalwasteofpaper · 01/01/2022 18:48

I’m a creep
And after arsehole neighbours at my last place i will happily knock on doors and have gone back when out to knock and say hi…

Original poster

MaternityNurse007 · 01/01/2022 19:35

Good guys, so most do what i would, phew. And what would you do if you find out by talking to next door, that they might be super rude and cause potential problems in future? Would you be put off to buy the property?

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Thirtytimesround · 01/01/2022 19:42

We popped backa few times at different times of day to just sit in car near house and listen to see if anyone noisy. It helped.

But honestly so much luck is involved. Like we bought in a quiet road in a smart area and my neighbours are a lovely kind generous couple in their forties. And their bedroom is the other side of the wall from ours and they have very noisy sex 😐 plus shortly after we moved in they bought a dog that barks all the frickin time and then their son took up the drums. Nothing we could have done to discover that before we moved in - it’s just luck.

But we are probably gonna move because of them!!

Original poster

MaternityNurse007 · 01/01/2022 20:01

Agree, you need lots of luck too.... lol

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LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow · 01/01/2022 20:15

we came and milled about a lot at odd times of day, I also joined the local fb groups to see how much moaning there was about things, did some googling of local newspapers.

And joined "NextDoor" ...if there's going to be any evidence of the crazy it's going to be on there!

echt · 01/01/2022 20:18

Before buying we had rented two properties, with delightful neighbours on both sides - still in touch with some of them!

When looking at a property, I could see from the upstairs balcony that on one NDN side it looked a bit wild: overgrown, sports equipment all over. I knocked on the other NDN's door and asked a few questions about the neighbourhood. The most important question was: is there any reason why I shouldn't buy this house? This included neighbours, by implication. Their immediate response was no, and if timing had been different, they'd have bought the house themselves in a heartbeat.

We bought the house. The wild ones still know zip about basic gardening, which is fine by me, and none of my business, and I'm on good terms with both sides.

So, back to the point, go knocking.

I agree with what Thirtytimesroundsays, luck still kicks in. We had years of basketball thudding form one side. they're all grown up now.

Hoppinggreen · 01/01/2022 20:20

A few years ago I was waking my dog down our road and a woman stopped me to say she had been looking at a house there and did I live locally and what was it like.
We had a nice chat and she moved in about 3 months later and are quite good friends now

Original poster

MaternityNurse007 · 01/01/2022 20:25

Oh i am glad people found lovely neighbours. There is hope for me too :)

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SnotZinwords · 01/01/2022 20:29

We recently moved and I was so nervous about making another housing mistake that we invested a lot of time in just checking the area was as nice as we thought. I am quite a shy person but I absolutely knocked on the neighbours’ door to ask if the street was as quiet as it seems! We also went round at very random times of the day and night to check.

@LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow I also added myself to a local page for the housing estate we bought on exactly because of the reasons you mentioned. It was great as I could see if there were ant really pressing problems - there weren’t, the most exciting it got was when the maintenance company painted double yellow lines in the street - not a problem at all for us but oh my goodness the comments 🙄

ILoveSushi12345 · 01/01/2022 20:30

I did exactly that, knocked on the door and asked about the street. I was obviously checking them out. I started a thread on here about it and I was absolutely sliced to bits by around 200 posters. I was called a cheeky cunt, a stalker, a crazy bitch, one person said if I'd knocked on their door they'd have told me to fuck off. They were all absolutely vile!! I'd happily assist someone if they asked me and it's nice to know most people on this thread are helpful too. Go on give them a knock... I bought the house by the way :-)

Mommabear20 · 01/01/2022 20:35

Definitely knock on doors! We didn't and regret it so much! Have a neighbor (over the road (terraced street) that has threatened to blow their house up at least 6 times in the last 3 years causing an evacuation of the entire area every time! 🤦‍♀️

mindutopia · 01/01/2022 21:24

I think we got really lucky but our only neighbours are a holiday let. That might sound awful, but actually works really well. We have a small farm and the holiday cottage is also a small farm and we share a drive (but houses quite far apart, have to go through their gate and peer around to see the house down the lane). They have a Facebook page for the holiday let, so I messaged them and introduced myself. They’re really lovely and totally normal.

Obviously, that’s a quite unusual situation, but if you have concerns, I would pop a note through the letterbox and say who you are/ask if they wouldn’t mind a chat about the local area. Dh and I have done this with a few houses we offered on where we were worried about neighbours.

Larchneedles · 01/01/2022 21:37

one person said if I'd knocked on their door they'd have told me to fuck off.

That would have made it very clear what sort of person she is.

I wouldn't buy a house next to someone so obviously aggressive and rude,.

Starseeking · 01/01/2022 22:07

I managed to enrol my DC in the local primary where I'm buying, and chatting to the school mums, 4 of them live on my new road! They've all said the street is lovely, and those who don't live there would like to move there.

As well as taking up the suggestions regarding talking to neighbours, if there are local shops nearby, I'd also pop in there and talk to the people behind the counter, as they are usually the people who know everything about everything.

Original poster

MaternityNurse007 · 02/01/2022 01:03

Thanks everyone, knocking it is :)

OP posts:

Larchneedles · 02/01/2022 14:38

Of course it's no guarantee.

Some neighbours are lovely as long as they get to do what they want! Like the parking one at the moment.

Gilesmummy · 06/01/2022 22:19

We came to view our current house and found out the people who were selling were moving next door... The funny thing is that they would only sell to people who they thought they’d get on with too.. luckily they are fab neighbours and of course if there’s any problem with the house we can just pop round and ask

romatheroamer · 07/01/2022 06:58

It's tricky, isn't it....there's only so much you can do. One clue I've learnt is (if you can see it) have a look at their garden. I've found from experience that if the garden looks scruffy, bits of junk lying around but they're not old, perfectly fit and able, it seems to go with rather unfriendly, inconsiderate, indifferent to neighbours.

user1471538283 · 07/01/2022 17:35

I would definitely knock on doors. I will also never again live next door or near a hot tub, outside bar or a garden filled with signs and random stuff. I will check that the neighbors houses are in decent condition.

I want a quiet neighborhood

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