Had anybody ever had to deal with neighbors who are constantly interfering with the sale of your property? What can be done about this?
My neighbor feels it’s her duty to notify everyone about every observable problem with our house. I don’t know if she’s the reason why we’ve had so many showings and no luck, but since she’s always scoping our place out and isn’t afraid to chat it up with visitors, so I can’t help but wonder.
There aren’t laws against this kind of interference are there?
I haven’t had anything quite like that, but I have had a couple of situations where the neighbors tried to claim their property boundary was over mine (I cleared this up by getting the property staked by a surveyor).
On another occasion, I heard that one neighbor was telling interested buyers that my property was all wetlands (it was about 50% wetlands, but not all of it). I had disclosed this to everyone, but it didn’t help to have this person getting in the middle and misrepresenting things.
I don’t know of any laws against this, but like any troubling behavior, a good, direct, tactful conversation with this neighbor could go a long way.
@amybreen This type of situation happened to me on a recent sale. A “helpful” neighbor kept informing every person looking at my property that the lot was “not buildable.” I got the inside scoop from another neighbor who told me the guy doesn’t want to see construction across the street from his house. The lot sold to a builder a few weeks later, and they have their permit to build a single-family home on that property now.
I would guess that in most cases, neighbors pulling this kind of stuff–out of good or bad intention-- will not deter a serious or knowledgable buyer. Heck, this neighbor’s behavior might even stir up more interest from potential buyers! 