Did you find out who would be your neighbors before putting an offer on a house?

[moonsky]

How did you do it? Just knocked the doors and asked questions. Also, did you check whether there were any deaths in the house? From where? The agent checked for you?

[♥ms.pacman♥]

no, we didn't do this (checking who neighbors were). never entered my mind actually! and we bought our house new, so the thing of deaths in the house was not an issue

[WatchingThemGrow]

I walked around the neighborhood one evening and spoke with one woman, told her I was interested in the house. She was sweet (we're in the South) and was receptive. A few weeks later, my xBF and I were at a restaurant waiting for a table, and the bartender handed me a drink that a couple had sent over. My eyes got big, then I realized it was the new neighbors I'd met before putting in the offer. Sadly, their house is vacant b/c of divorce and foreclosure now, but she lives around the corner.

You can usually search the town's public record info online to find out the owners of the homes around you, as well as other public info. You can do some Googling to find out a lot with the address, names, etc.

I want to say that I probably wouldn't go through all that, but I probably would if my kids are still napping when we buy again, lol. Who was it that was moving and knew they were leaving behind some crazy neighbors? brittone2 or someone else?

eta: actually, one friend said she used to come to this house to party when she was in college b/c a fun group of gay guys lived here. I'm so glad she told me that. :)

[crl]

No. We did visit the neighborhood several times at different times of day to get a feel for noise, parking, etc.

Catherine

[TwinFoxes]

We didn't check on our neighbors either, other than to make sure their houses looked kept up (which we didn't do last time and it bit us in the butt...that cool classic fixer car in the driveway was soon joined by a boat and a dishwasher!) What we did do was go by the house at different hours of the night to see what was going on. You want to know if your neighbors play music late at night, or if your street looks dark and scary, as opposed to well lit with dog walkers.

The death thing wouldn't bother me, unless it was a gangland hit or something.

[elektra]

The selling agent told us a bit about the neighbors, which I took with a grain of salt because she obviously wants to sell the house regardless, but she was right on in her descriptions actually.
We did drive bys too.

[moonsky]

The death thing wouldn't bother me, unless it was a gangland hit or something.

I wouldn't buy the house if I knew that there were deaths there no matter what the causes were. I think California is closed state. So, I don't think the seller is obiligated to disclose info. Advice?

[codex57]

I wouldn't buy the house if I knew that there were deaths there no matter what the causes were. I think California is closed state. So, I don't think the seller is obiligated to disclose info. Advice?

In CA, it's pretty simple from the buyer's point of view. Just ask.

CA's law is that it has to be either "material" or within 3 yrs to be a required disclosure. It's "safest" to just disclose it, but not always necessary. If it bugs you as a buyer, just ask and then it becomes "material" for all intents and purposes. Normally, "material" means it was in some gruesome way or otherwise weird that would make it of particular interest to the buyer. The typical "old guy passed away in his sleep" is not meant to be "material". If you care about that anyways, just ask so the seller knows that any death is of particular interest to you.

[brittone2]

Hmmm...I think it would be tough to *really* have any great idea about the neighbors in advance, barring the existence of some pretty extreme/obvious issues w/ them or the property.

I do check the sex offender registries. Just good to know in general.

When we buy again, we'll be driving around neighborhoods a good bit. We're renting in a great neighborhood right now....beautiful homes, great lots. However, there are very few young children (lots of teens; houses are 16yo so I'm thinking maybe a lot of original owners?). And the few children that are in the neighborhood rarely play outside. We moved here from a great neighborhood where all the kids played together, and there was always someone in the cul de sac riding bikes or playing ball if you wanted to join in. No need to schedule an actual formal playdate.

We have friends 10 mins away in the same town who live in a nice neighborhood. Smaller homes, smaller lots, but on a cul de sac and they all seem to hang out, the kids play together, some of the neighbors carpool with one another for camp right now, etc. *That* is what I'll be looking for when we buy again. That is very, very important to me. So yeah, we'll be driving around and seeing if kids are hanging out, etc.

My previous next door neighbors were a PITA with their dogs (always on our property, pooping in my driveway, chasing UPS/Fed Ex/USPS all of the time to the point they didn't want to deliver to my house, even though they weren't my dogs. Not sure I would have known in advance though....they were home when we looked at that house originally but their dogs must have stayed in the yard because the owners were home. There are worse neighbor issues to have I suppose.

eta: someone dying in the house...I wouldn't ask (it isn't that important to me unless it was some like crazy huge crime scene or something I'd be really weirded out by) but that's a very individual thing and I understand why it would bother someone else.

[boolady]

The other thing you have to keep in mind is that whoever's there now won't necessarily be who's there in 3-4 years. Our immediate neighborhood has turned over dramatically since we moved in 7 years ago. It was fine when we moved in, but there were far fewer kids than there are now. Lots of younger families moved in, and there are lots of kids, some young couples, and some older couples. We've got a great dynamic right now, but you never know. For that reason, in the absence of some indication that there were really bad neighbors close by, I wouldn't not buy a house I loved because of neighbors. It can all change in a heartbeat.

[Binkandabee]

The other thing you have to keep in mind is that whoever's there now won't necessarily be who's there in 3-4 years. Our immediate neighborhood has turned over dramatically since we moved in 7 years ago. It was fine when we moved in, but there were far fewer kids than there are now. Lots of younger families moved in, and there are lots of kids, some young couples, and some older couples. We've got a great dynamic right now, but you never know. For that reason, in the absence of some indication that there were really bad neighbors close by, I wouldn't not buy a house I loved because of neighbors. It can all change in a heartbeat.

This is what I was thinking, too. Every single house on our street has new owners since we moved in 8 years ago.

[wellyes]

3 of our 5 immediate neighbors moved in since we bought this house 3 years ago.

I think neighborhoods with young families tend to have higher turnover, at least here in the Northeast. I know in my neighborhood is full of "starter homes" so people tend to buy when they're looking to start a family, but tend to move out to somewhere bigger before the kids are out of elementary.

[Jo..]

No. We just lucked out.

We are in a suburban area and bought the house for the location. We moved in Mid-December 2006, and our closest neighbor invited us over for Christmas dinner that same year. After we had been there less than two weeks. Since then, we gt together every couple of weeks and spend most holidays together. They are part of my family now.

We have the best neighbors in the world, but we just walked into it.

[ThreeofUs]

I did. I saw the guy outside and wandered over to make conversation. Twice.

It really helped us understand what was going on with the house and what we should bid.

[TwinFoxes]

In CA, it's pretty simple from the buyer's point of view. Just ask.

CA's law is that it has to be either "material" or within 3 yrs to be a required disclosure. It's "safest" to just disclose it, but not always necessary. If it bugs you as a buyer, just ask and then it becomes "material" for all intents and purposes. Normally, "material" means it was in some gruesome way or otherwise weird that would make it of particular interest to the buyer. The typical "old guy passed away in his sleep" is not meant to be "material". If you care about that anyways, just ask so the seller knows that any death is of particular interest to you.

This is interesting.

But for OP, unless you're buying a fairly new house, chances are the current owners will have no idea if anyone had died there. Does the amount of time that has passed matter to you? If you wouldn't buy a house where someone had died, no matter how long ago, I think it'd be best to buy a newer house, and ask the current owners about deaths.

[khm]

We didn't really check them out. We did spend a lot of time driving through the neighborhood, so we totally got that it was a super family friendly place. Scads of people standing in driveways while parents chat in groups with kids playing in larger groups. It was clear that if nothing else, the kids would love it.

My husband did chat small talk with the neighbor that he bumped into outside, but nothing huge. The house was for sale by a weird flat fee broker, so the homeowner (wife) showed us the house. She did talk about the neighbors a bit, what they did and how old the kids were, that they were friends and she'd miss them, that they traded off watching each other's kids often.

I don't think most normal death situations would bother me, but I always lived in old homes growing up. I don't know for sure, but I'd hazard a guess at least someone died in them at some point.

Now, a notorious murder scene would bother me. In our state, stuff like that should be disclosed, but it isn't always.

[WatchingThemGrow]

This is a site I've looked for sex offender registry before, but it doesn't seem to have as many listed as I've seen before. http://www.familywatchdog.us/default.asp

[jenfromnj]

No, though we did do a few drive-bys and checked our state's sex offender registry (NJ has a law which results in all registered sex offenders being entered into a publicly available database that contains their names, addresses and often photos--not sure if other states have this).

I agree with the suggestion of buying a newer home if you're really disturbed by the idea of someone having died there. There are lots of older homes here in NJ, and since it was so common "back in the day" to die at home, I would think it would be pretty common for someone to have died in many of those homes.

[newg]

We did talk to a few neighbors, but only because they were already outside. They gave us some insight into the neighborhood, but we also drove through the neighborhood a few times and which helped too.....people waved to us, kids were always outside playing, houses were kept up, we saw tons of swingsets and other outside toys...........

[MommyAllison]

We did drivebys, checked the sex offender registry and the local crime map to find out the crime rate/type, and we talked to the neighbors. We actually wrote out a short note to them, planning to leave it taped to their door if nobody was home, but both neighbors were home. We mostly had questions about the neighborhood (wondering how busy the street was, and if noise/traffic from a nearby stadium was an issue), but were also curious who our neighbors would be. I talked to one neighbor, who ended up having kids the same age as ours, and answering our questions and then telling us how much they liked the neighborhood - they were wonderful, and told us they hoped we'd buy the house. DH talked to the other neighbor, who was a renter living with her 80 y/o mother, who volunteered some info about the seller that was helpful. The renter has moved out, but our other neighbors are still here and likely will be for a long time, because they bought at the top of the market. We found it really, really helpful to talk to them. It was nice to get impartial info on the street & neighborhood from people who were in no way connected to the sale of the house.

[sste]

I might call the police to see if they can look up for you crimes on your street and also, if they keep records on this, reports or calls into police for noise/nuisance/etc.

I personally probably wouldn't go meet the neigbhors . . . though its not a bad idea. Just knock and say you are thinking about buying there, want to ask them if they enjoy the neighborhood, how quiet it is, kids with families nearby, etc.

As for a death in the home, I can live with a ghost or two. :)

[Roni]

We looked at our house when I was 41 weeks pregnant. It was under construction, so there was no issue of deaths. But, the house next door is a summer house, and there were a bunch of young men partying and swearing. So, dh paid a visit to the neighbors on the other side. It turns out that the partying neighbors rarely come up. (It was Memorial Day weekend and was apparently "guys' weekend".) We never had problems with them, and recently a family with kids my girls age have moved in.

[Karenn]

I went and knocked on neighbors doors, asked about the neighborhood, crime, which houses were rentals, etc. The main reason we were leaving our old house was nuisance neighbors. I didn't want to go down that road again. I didn't ask about deaths. It wasn't an issue for us. The neighbors we talked with were helpful, but not entirely honest with us. I think they wanted nice people to move in next to them as much as we wanted to move in next to nice people. They told us a couple years after we moved in that the teenagers living in our house at the time had been dealing drugs out of our basement and attracting some crime as a result!

I also checked the sex offender watch dog site listed above. Big mistake!! It was NOT a comprehensive list and it missed the sex offender that was living down the street. I wish I'd checked with local law enforcement instead.

The sex offender is back in prison and now that the teenage drug dealer is gone, it's a great neighborhood to live in.

[citymama]

We're still house hunting, but I hear you. We almost put a bid in on a place but the immediate next door neighbor seemed totally creepy (he was staring at us while we checked out the yard, and the yards were separated by a low fence). We didn't put in an offer!

[kransden]

I checked to see if the neighbors had dogs. If there was lots of "evidence", we left. If it wasn't noticeable, then no big deal. I wasn't against dogs, but unclean owners.

[teedeedee]

We're military and move every 3ish years. We frequent the neighborhood after we find a house we really love. We'll park somewhere and go for a walk. We also drive by at various times of day. This tells you a lot about the neighbors and also helps you learn traffic patterns.

I also checked the sex offender registry. I never thought about deaths, but I don't think it would have changed my mind.

[WatchingThemGrow]

I might call the police to see if they can look up for you crimes on your street and also, if they keep records on this, reports or calls into police for noise/nuisance/etc.

I did that. They said there was nothing that had happened near the house, no crimes to note, etc. Three months after moving in, I was held up at gunpoint by a kid living in public housing on the next street. Unfortunately, he is now 21 and broke into a house worth 4x as much as mine on 4th of July weekend, 7 years later. You just never know..

[infomama]

We didn't but honestly I think that would be *really* hard to do if you mean beyond 'young couple with a baby' or 'older couple been here for 40 years" unless (like pp said) there is a blatant issue.

[maestramommy]

It actually never crossed our minds to check that stuff. We did know that the sellers were divorcing, hence the reason for selling, but that was it. It wasn't until we moved in that we discovered two neighbors across the street had small children.

[poppy]

I wouldn't buy the house if I knew that there were deaths there no matter what the causes were. I think California is closed state. So, I don't think the seller is obiligated to disclose info. Advice?

I did not read the other posts, but I believe that sellers must disclose any deaths or you can void the contract. I was looking at a house when the seller's agent told us he was legally bound to disclose that someone died there. She was terminally ill and left the hospital to die at home.

[gobadgers]

We didn't meet any of the immediate neighbors before putting our offer in. I was tempted to knock on doors, but I just wasn't sure what information I expected so I didn't. Actually, our agent knocked on one door a couple times to find out whose property a hedge was on, but no one was ever home (and we obviously found out). We did do lots of drive-bys, walks through the neighborhood, and hung out at the park.

We were slightly disappointed to find that although there were many kids on the street, all were way older than ours. DH kept saying that the neighborhood would be turning over soon, and sure enough about a month ago a family with kids the same ages as ours moved in directly across the street :cheerleader1:

[Cam&Clay]

Well, kind of. At the school I used to teach, it was well-known that DH (who was still in Iraq and not my DH quite yet), were looking to buy a house in the neighborhood. One day, a teacher I knew who happened to live in the neighborhood, came into my classroom and said the house next door to her was going up for sale and she had heard the next door neighbors were "fabulous!" I didn't know her all that well and drove by the house later. It was too much for our budget. Bummer.

Six months later, they dropped the price, DH came home, we got married, took a tour of the house and bought it. And she's right. They are the best neighbors ever. Like DH says, "They're like 1950s neighbors."

[longtallsally05]

Kind of. I checked my state's sex offender registry website to make sure that none of my future neighbors were/are sex offenders. Well, if any of my neighbors are sex offenders, they aren't registered sex offenders!