Neighbours from nowhere near hell
Discussion
I don't know if anyone can help me with this.Indeed.I'm not even sure that I have a serious problem. However here goes -
I live in a quiet village in Worcestershire.The street is of mixed housing with a few half timber houses going back several centuries - 2 different generations, (one post WW1, one post WW2) of housing association (ex council)houses and a number buildt in the last 40 years. My house is one of the more expensive newer builds.
We have been on the market for a year and have had 5 definite very interested buyers, all of whom have backed out after walking to the end of the street, about 100 yd away, and looking at the state of the 2 ex housing association but now privately owned houses with cars, pallets of building materials, rusty trailers etc litering the fronts of their houses. All of which have been in place for at least seven years.
Now I can't complain about the street. It's as quiet as can be after 7:30 PM and the neighbours give no trouble whatsoever. However, as soon as prospective purchases take a look, they immediately back off.
. I'm not sure how to move things on. I've reduced the price, but that is not what seems to influence the buyers. Do I just reconcile myself to this? Does anybody have any experience of a similar occurrence? I appreciate that there are a lot of people who are in far far worse neighbourhood situations than I am but the house and gardens are now beyond our ability to maintain and we need to downsize whilst we still have the strength
I live in a quiet village in Worcestershire.The street is of mixed housing with a few half timber houses going back several centuries - 2 different generations, (one post WW1, one post WW2) of housing association (ex council)houses and a number buildt in the last 40 years. My house is one of the more expensive newer builds.
We have been on the market for a year and have had 5 definite very interested buyers, all of whom have backed out after walking to the end of the street, about 100 yd away, and looking at the state of the 2 ex housing association but now privately owned houses with cars, pallets of building materials, rusty trailers etc litering the fronts of their houses. All of which have been in place for at least seven years.
Now I can't complain about the street. It's as quiet as can be after 7:30 PM and the neighbours give no trouble whatsoever. However, as soon as prospective purchases take a look, they immediately back off.
. I'm not sure how to move things on. I've reduced the price, but that is not what seems to influence the buyers. Do I just reconcile myself to this? Does anybody have any experience of a similar occurrence? I appreciate that there are a lot of people who are in far far worse neighbourhood situations than I am but the house and gardens are now beyond our ability to maintain and we need to downsize whilst we still have the strength
loggo said:
I don't know if anyone can help me with this.Indeed.I'm not even sure that I have a serious problem. However here goes -
I live in a quiet village in Worcestershire.The street is of mixed housing with a few half timber houses going back several centuries - 2 different generations, (one post WW1, one post WW2) of housing association (ex council)houses and a number buildt in the last 40 years. My house is one of the more expensive newer builds.
We have been on the market for a year and have had 5 definite very interested buyers, all of whom have backed out after walking to the end of the street, about 100 yd away, and looking at the state of the 2 ex housing association but now privately owned houses with cars, pallets of building materials, rusty trailers etc litering the fronts of their houses. All of which have been in place for at least seven years.
Now I can't complain about the street. It's as quiet as can be after 7:30 PM and the neighbours give no trouble whatsoever. However, as soon as prospective purchases take a look, they immediately back off.
. I'm not sure how to move things on. I've reduced the price, but that is not what seems to influence the buyers. Do I just reconcile myself to this? Does anybody have any experience of a similar occurrence? I appreciate that there are a lot of people who are in far far worse neighbourhood situations than I am but the house and gardens are now beyond our ability to maintain and we need to downsize whilst we still have the strength
I know you've said you have reduced the price but its obviously not enough. Anything will sell if the value is right.I live in a quiet village in Worcestershire.The street is of mixed housing with a few half timber houses going back several centuries - 2 different generations, (one post WW1, one post WW2) of housing association (ex council)houses and a number buildt in the last 40 years. My house is one of the more expensive newer builds.
We have been on the market for a year and have had 5 definite very interested buyers, all of whom have backed out after walking to the end of the street, about 100 yd away, and looking at the state of the 2 ex housing association but now privately owned houses with cars, pallets of building materials, rusty trailers etc litering the fronts of their houses. All of which have been in place for at least seven years.
Now I can't complain about the street. It's as quiet as can be after 7:30 PM and the neighbours give no trouble whatsoever. However, as soon as prospective purchases take a look, they immediately back off.
. I'm not sure how to move things on. I've reduced the price, but that is not what seems to influence the buyers. Do I just reconcile myself to this? Does anybody have any experience of a similar occurrence? I appreciate that there are a lot of people who are in far far worse neighbourhood situations than I am but the house and gardens are now beyond our ability to maintain and we need to downsize whilst we still have the strength
Doesn't mean you need to give it away but it does need to be a lot cheaper than the same size / spec house without the outside drawbacks.
I know someone who lived under the flight landing path for Gatwick. I was in the garden for the first time and it was genuinely shocking when the first jet went over. They put their house up for £800k and it got snapped up.
Another person I know bought a house next to a working garage / petrol station, railway level crossing and station and big country pub that does events. Paid £650k but the same house without those would have been £800k in the same general area.
You just need the right buyer which will be a combination of time and price. If you want to speed up the time you have to compromise on price.
Mandat said:
Instead of reducing the price, how about speaking with the owners of the offending houses and offer to pay for them to be cleaned up?
It's well worth a try. At the end of our lane there was an abandoned car on private land. Been there for years. Our neighbour was trying to sell his house and the car was putting people off. He went and knocked on a few doors and eventually this old bloke said "yes it's mine, sorry it's such a mess but it's beyond me to know what to do with it." My neighbour got it collected by a scrap man, I whizzed round with a strimmer and the house was sold.
Have the Gardens always been like this or is it case of the two houses having been sold an dthe new owners have turned their front gardens into tips?
You could argue if this is a recent thing, then they have affected your house price negatively because as stated you need to reduce the value of yours to a point that someone overlooks the local tip because they're getting a bargain from you..
If the gardens have always been like this then they haven't affected the house price and you're just asking too much?
I like the idea of buying them, cleaning the gardens up and flipping them! Would increase the value of all three then!
You could argue if this is a recent thing, then they have affected your house price negatively because as stated you need to reduce the value of yours to a point that someone overlooks the local tip because they're getting a bargain from you..
If the gardens have always been like this then they haven't affected the house price and you're just asking too much?
I like the idea of buying them, cleaning the gardens up and flipping them! Would increase the value of all three then!
My experience of the current housing market (since April 2025) is that it's absolutely dire.
Lots of people "interested" but pretty much no-one in a position to proceed.
Even if you manage to put together a chain that looks vaguely viable, it will be extremely fragile and your stress levels will go through the roof.
Personally, I'd be waiting for the current shenanigans with Iran to reach some kind of conclusion, the oil price to stabilise, the outlook for interest rates to be more favourable and a general feeling of optimism to return to the employment market.
Lots of people "interested" but pretty much no-one in a position to proceed.
Even if you manage to put together a chain that looks vaguely viable, it will be extremely fragile and your stress levels will go through the roof.
Personally, I'd be waiting for the current shenanigans with Iran to reach some kind of conclusion, the oil price to stabilise, the outlook for interest rates to be more favourable and a general feeling of optimism to return to the employment market.
Derry Rhumba said:
I doubt very much that people aren't buying your house because your neighbours have got piles of s
t on their property.
It will be (at least partly) a different reason.
Indeed. He said 100 yards away. I would guess that the vast majority of UK properties have something or someone unsightly within 100 yards.t on their property.It will be (at least partly) a different reason.
It's the price.
Peterpetrole said:
Derry Rhumba said:
I doubt very much that people aren't buying your house because your neighbours have got piles of st on their property.
It will be (at least partly) a different reason.
Indeed. He said 100 yards away. I would guess that the vast majority of UK properties have something or someone unsightly within 100 yards.t on their property.It will be (at least partly) a different reason.
It's the price.
Six plus Six said:
Mandat said:
Instead of reducing the price, how about speaking with the owners of the offending houses and offer to pay for them to be cleaned up?
Would be worth a try, though i do suspect that many people who keep their houses like that thrive on it fking other people off.Six plus Six said:
Mandat said:
Instead of reducing the price, how about speaking with the owners of the offending houses and offer to pay for them to be cleaned up?
Would be worth a try, though i do suspect that many people who keep their houses like that thrive on it fking other people off.I don't do it to fk other people off.
I'm just not at all bothered about image and if it meets my needs then I'm ok with that.
Just like I don't need a new car to show off.
Move.
Oh, you can't.
The thread title is in desperate need of a comma.
If it's council owned or private housing association owned property that's messy, then approach the owners confidentially.
I probably wouldn't be approaching the tenants.
Technically that may be seen as a dispute, which you don't want if you're selling.
Oh, you can't.
The thread title is in desperate need of a comma.
If it's council owned or private housing association owned property that's messy, then approach the owners confidentially.
I probably wouldn't be approaching the tenants.
Technically that may be seen as a dispute, which you don't want if you're selling.
boyse7en said:
Six plus Six said:
Mandat said:
Instead of reducing the price, how about speaking with the owners of the offending houses and offer to pay for them to be cleaned up?
Would be worth a try, though i do suspect that many people who keep their houses like that thrive on it fking other people off.
Do not dismiss this possibility, illness or age-related infirmity can overtake good intentions; an offer to help tidy up, even just superficially to move building materials to the back garden, might be gratefully received. Gut feel, is that if the scruffy places are 100 yards away, unless they are very, very bad, it’s an excuse.
Fundamentaliy the market is very very slow. Which village is it? I know Worcestershire quite well.
We recently sold our place in Devon but had to be clever.
I instructed the agent to use a strategy we use with new build. Advertise the house saying £20k off the price for 3 months only, exchange to take place within 6 weeks of offer.
If that fails advertise as “stamp duty paid” ( you will need some conditions around max level in the small print)
The limited time discount worked for us on a property that had been for sale for a year. I did take it off the market for 4 months so Rightmove sees it as a new listing. Within 12 weeks it just shows it as a price reduction.
Fundamentaliy the market is very very slow. Which village is it? I know Worcestershire quite well.
We recently sold our place in Devon but had to be clever.
I instructed the agent to use a strategy we use with new build. Advertise the house saying £20k off the price for 3 months only, exchange to take place within 6 weeks of offer.
If that fails advertise as “stamp duty paid” ( you will need some conditions around max level in the small print)
The limited time discount worked for us on a property that had been for sale for a year. I did take it off the market for 4 months so Rightmove sees it as a new listing. Within 12 weeks it just shows it as a price reduction.
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