Selling a house in today’s depressed real estate market is enough of a chore. What happens when the lawn next door hasn’t been mowed since the Rockies were still in a pennant chase?
Or the lawn is barely visible because three junkers are parked on it, making it look more like a used-car lot than an ideal neighbor?
Sellers do have options to rectify the situation, either by consulting with outside experts or simply reaching out in a neighborly fashion.
Dave Lister, a real estate appraiser and Realtor with Madison & Park Residential Real Estate, said the good news is that being next door to a less-than-perfect home shouldn’t significantly affect a home’s appraised value.
“A lot of appraisers don’t adjust for a poor house next door,” Lister said. Such houses can be easily fixed, or may reflect the current upheaval in a particular neighborhood, he added.
That doesn’t mean sellers won’t take some sort of hit if the house next door needs serious attention. Such a house might be priced less than it otherwise might be because of the condition of neighboring homes, Lister said.
It also may stay on the market weeks longer than it might have otherwise.
Jim Carroll, a real estate broker with ReMax Alliance in Westminster, said homeowners associations are often an ace in the hole when it comes to resolving such issues.
“If you don’t get (the lawn) cut, they’ll fine you,” Carroll said, adding that good HOAs will tour properties weekly to ensure homes are being maintained. The same holds true if the dilapidated house in question is owned by a bank, although he said in these cases the fix may take longer to happen.
Home sellers operating without an HOA should gently ask their neighbors for a hand in the process.
“Tell them the Realtor told you to ask them to cut that grass or move that car,” he said. “If it’s an elderly couple, offer to cut the grass for them.”
Christine Hoth, a shareholder at Senn Visciano Kirschenbaum PC, said city codes also provide an option for frustrated homeowners.
Hoth said Denver code enforcement officials can step in should a homeowner let his or her grass grow too tall or if the vehicles parked on the lawn lack valid licensing stickers.
Janet Scott, owner/broker with Janet Z Real Estate in Fort Collins, said local officials there act proactively to keep neighborhoods pristine.
“If they see something like weeds in the yard . . . they send a letter to the owner and that usually takes care of it,” Scott said, adding that she called Fort Collins officials after buying property next to a house with furniture stacked up in the yard.
The matter was quickly resolved, she said.
As a real estate broker, Scott has seen firsthand the impact a neighboring house can have on a potential home sale.
“I showed a property recently, and across the street loud music was blaring. It wasn’t something my buyer was willing to deal with, so we crossed that one off the list,” she said.
Steve Miller, an appraiser with Rocky Mountain Appraisal, said some downtrodden homes don’t directly affect the sale of neighboring properties.
The current foreclosure wave has left entire blocks looking less than market-ready, Miller said. In those situations the value of one particular house likely won’t be affected.
“There’s a lot of blocks that look pretty sad (right now),” Miller said.
It’s a different story in more-established neighborhoods where a home’s appeal might decrease if the neighboring homes appear poorly maintained, or if they’ve replaced their home’s windows with plexiglass.
“It does affect the value, but not more than 5 percent,” he said.
