People Share Stories of Times Honest Neighbors Talked Them Out of Buying a House
A good neighbor can make or break a community. Not just because living next to people you get along with can make your home life that much better, but because living next to people who you actively hate can change the way you feel about your home.
People are now taking to Threads to share stories about some of the best neighbors they’ve ever met. But these aren’t the people that they’ve enjoyed living next to; instead, they are the people who warned them against buying homes with known problems.
It all started when @heuppity shared the story of the time he warned a woman about a house she was considering buying on his block. The woman approached him and asked if he liked living on his street. “I told her yes, but I wouldn’t buy that house,” he recalled. “She paused, and I told her I watched them remodel, and they didn’t do the flooring/foundation properly for an almost-100-year-old home. I went to school for architecture, so I notice those things.”
The Oct. 6 post gained a lot of attention, and hundreds of people took the opportunity to share their own stories, either when they were the ones approached by a hopeful homeowner or when they were the ones who were warned away.
Most People Were Grateful for the Warnings
View on Threads
It sounds like a lot of people were warned about potential money pits by concerned neighbors. “We were going to buy a house once, and a neighbor stopped us and told us it had flooded three times,” one person wrote. “Thank goodness for people lookin out!”
“While my wife and I were looking at a place, a neighbor pulled out of their driveway and started down the road,” another person recalled. “As they passed, they rolled down the window and called out, ‘Don’t do it!’ We didn’t.”
Another person said that the neighbor of their house they were looking at warned them about several issues, including termites and black mold, warning them that the previous owner had gotten sick while cleaning it up. “Was hospitalized and died,” they wrote. “Kid was selling the house. Knows all of this. Marked disclosure as unknown; never lived in the house.”
Others Say They Were the Concerned Neighbor in Their Stories
While the people who were warned away were grateful, the folks who said they were the ones doing the warning were just happy to help. “I asked the realtor of the house across the street that she had listed if she told the young couple going through it if she told them that the previous owner died in the house. In August. And that she wasn’t found for a month,” one good Samaritan wrote. “The coroner used a shovel to scrape her off the floor. I was told to ‘mind my own business.’ I didn’t.”
Another neighbor wrote that they were worried about an unhappy spirit harassing the new homeowners after the previous owner had died in the house. “All of her cats were locked in a room downstairs, and they had to redo the sheetrock in that room,” they wrote. “The family waited until they no longer had to disclose that someone had died there before selling.” Instead of letting someone else inherit the bad vibes, the neighbors decided to stand outside and warn any prospective buyers as they came to look at the homes.
Some States Have Laws to Protect Buyers Against Stuff Like This
Many states require the current owner to sign some sort of document itemizing known “material defects” with the property, according to My Injury Firm. These requirements vary from state to state, with some locations having more robust rules than others. For example, in Pennsylvania, the current owner is required to make potential buyers aware of things like structural issues, the age of the roof (and any repairs or known issues involving it), and water intrusion problems.
Still, it’s nice to know that even when sellers aren’t willing or able to tell potential buyers the ugly truth about a property, there are some nearby neighbors who are more than ready to spill the beans.
