Your 
Neighbors can kill the sale of your property and cost you thousands of dollars. These are true stories
Lawn Mower Man
One of my clients thought she hit the next door neighbor jackpot. A single woman who traveled often for business bought a home in Eagan. Her neighbor made sure her walk was shoveled in the winter and her grass mowed in the summer. He kept his eye on the place when she was away.
He got involved in a little project across the street where he helped rehab a house and invested some money in it with a promise from the owner that if the improvements resulted in a high enough sale price the friendly neighbor would get to keep some of the money.
When my client announced that she wanted to sell her home, the home across the street had been on the market as a for sale by owner for several months. My client’s home got a lot of showings. The home across the street had few until the next door neighbor started going inside my clients home while it was being shown and persuading the REALTOR and his or her client to come across the street and have a look.
He promised the REALTOR a commission. He continued to do this for months no matter what my client said. It irritated her that she was paying to have her home sold and that I was paying for advertising and her neighbor was dragging buyers out of her home and into his.
When I talked to him I asked him to stay off of my client’s property and gave him a copy of the Minnesota State statute that says a person has to have a real estate license or be a lawyer to sell real estate for another for profit. That seemed to slow him down a bit.
We believe that this did slow the sale of her property. If for no other reason some of the buyers were put off by the neighbor who always seemed to be in my client’s house and yard. We have no idea what he said about her house when he went inside. Did he point out non-existent defects? Did he say that the house across the street is better? Al I know is that the home had a record-breaking 120 showings and got two offers before it sold. Eventually, the home across the was listed through a REALTOR and sold in a couple of months after it had been on the market as a for sale by owner for almost a year.
The storytelling neighbors
A buyer was walking around outside a townhouse I had on the market with her REALTOR. Some unidentified neighbors were also out taking a walk. The buyer asked the neighbors how they liked living in the townhouse. The neighbors went on a tirade about how bad the association is and how the builder went bankrupt and is being sued by the association because the townhouses are sinking.
As a REALTOR it is my duty to disclose everything that I know. The association has the same obligation. I talked to my client, the management company and to the association president. No one ever heard of sinking townhouses or law suites. The buyer decided not to take any chances and bought a townhouse in a different development.
The Clueless Neighbor
I had a townhouse listed that had a leaky roof. The roof was repaired and the seller’s disclosure mentioned the leak and the repairs. When a buyer asked a neighbor about the roof the neighbor told the buyer that it had not been repaired and that he thought it needed a new roof. The buyer then called all the neighbors and asked them if they were at all interested in selling their units. When the answer was no she moved on.
I suspect the clueless neighbor had more to say, and will never know what he said. His intentions were not malicious. He answered questions without knowing that repairs had successfully been made and that several thousand dollars were spent on the project.
