Managing Home Maintenance Costs

This post is about Things Your Neighbors Won’t Tell You because they are jealous or are mad at you for some other reason. “Complaining about your neighbors or complaining to your neighbors will cost you”. You will just be never sure when it will happen. How they will do it or how much it will cost you. If you have a neighbor that is difficult to deal with they will sabotage you at some point. It may cost you a great deal of money.  Always try to get along with your neighbors! Things Your Neighbors Won’t Tell You can cost you a great deal. You may not even know it. The following are several areas to watch out for.

Things Your Neighbors Won’t Tell You – A-List

“I will use your Wi-Fi — and might get you arrested”. Leaving your WiFi unprotected with no password is a sure way to exceed your data limits. It could even attract the wrong attention from the police. Your neighbors will not tell you that they are using your WiFi for free! Or what kind of content they might be downloading on your system. The police will eventually figure it out if there is really something sinister going on. But in the meantime, you must deal with all of the suspicions, etc.

“Good luck blocking out our din”. Noisy neighbors can be irritating. If you complain, you can almost be sure that they will take extra pains to be noisy. It could be always arranging to cut the lawn just when you are having an outdoor dinner party. Or perhaps having large noisy parties on a work night.

“I’m a registered sex offender”

No one is going to tell you this information ever unless they are forced to. Be alert and if you are concerned check with websites that track this sort of thing.

“We’re ripping up the flower beds and planting corn.” You move into a beautiful neighborhood and expect all the neighbors to keep up their end of the bargain. But then there is the guy who does not cut the lawn, lets the flowers die and the weeds grow! Your home is next door and losing value every time a new weed pops up. You may even have to call the city to get him to cut his weeds down and now you have a neighbor who only wants to see revenge.

“My bed bugs need neighbors too.” The garbage is not thrown out properly, your kids sleepover, rodents visit and it is downhill from there. But will they tell you about these issues or let you find out yourself? Their mangy dog is always in your yard and doing his business wherever he likes.

“I’m secretly stealing your land.”

Neighbors can encroach on your lot by extending flower beds, moving sidewalks, or fences. Unless you pay attention you will never know until you have your lot lines surveyed.

“Our bad behavior will give the whole block a bad name.” One neighbor can ruin a neighborhood and drop home values overnight. Imagine holding an open house to sell your place and they hold a huge party. It is always the guy on the corner lot that does not keep his property up and brings the value of all of the neighbor properties down.

“We’re not paying our mortgage.” They will not tell you that is for sure, but you will figure it out soon enough. No maintenance is done on the home and collection agents are coming around. As their home is sold for collection the value of yours is also going down!

“You’re moving? I’ll cut $20,000 off your sale price.” Casual chats with prospective buyers could cost you a great deal if they say the wrong thing.  A chat with a neighbor could cost you the deal or cause the buyer to offer a really low price for the home and make it difficult to sell your home. Remind them that lower prices affect the value of their home too and someday they will be selling their home. Real estate agents always look for comparable when they price a home and you do not want several homes selling for a low price due to someone sabotaging your home.

That’s it when it comes to Things Your Neighbors Won’t Tell You

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We just finished installing good neighbor fencing along one side of my lot. The existing fence was 25 years old and needed to be replaced.  As well, my neighbor wanted to also replace it and since we share it between us, this meant that not only would he help me build it, he would also split the cost of the fence as well.

We decided on a traditional good neighbor fence, with a lattice at the top to add additional privacy and decoration. We also decided on a pre-built fence section which means the bottom part was built with a boxed-in effect using two by fours and the same approach for the lattice. The picture shows this superior fence. Using the two by fours as a box makes this fence a much stronger and sturdier fence. The good neighbor fence is vertical boards on opposite sides of the fence to allow the breeze to go through and to provide a more open look. More detail is provided in the following paragraphs.

Good Neighbor Fencing

Whenever you are building fences that are between neighbors there are several rules that apply in order to maintain good relations:

• Always split the cost of installing the new fence
• Always agree to design, style, price, and any construction details before proceeding
• The fence should be on the property line
• If it is a do it your self job, always help each other to build it unless there are health issues
• When one neighbor is going ahead without the other’s consent, it usually means that the cost is not split and the fence should not be on the property line
• If you hire a contractor, always make sure that everyone agrees to price, timing, style, and quality before giving the go-ahead

Good Neighbor Fencing Pricing

We elected to build it ourselves on the property line and split the cost of the materials.  We initially requested an estimate from a contractor who gave us a price of $4500 which worked out to a cost of $47 a foot which included removal of the old fence, construction of the new fence, and clean up after construction was finished. This was way too much for us and we decided to build it ourselves. The final cost for doing it ourselves worked out to be $1947 or $20 a foot which was a huge saving. We split the cost equally and so we ended up paying just under a thousand dollars each.

This is a much better fence than we would have had if we had hired a contractor to build it. We compared our fence to others in the neighborhood and not only is there more material in our fence, but it is also much stronger than any of the other fences that have been installed recently.

Compare Pricing for Good Neighbor Fencing

Whether you have someone build it or do it yourself, it is a good idea to compare pricing for the materials as well as labor before you begin. An important factor to discuss is the design of the fence to make sure you both agree on the design, but also how much material will be needed. There are many different designs and they all take different amounts of material which affects the price. We compared pre-built fence sections from two major suppliers and found one to be superior. The superior fence was more expensive. However since we had a quote from the other supplier, the second supplier matched the price. We got a great deal, a superior fence design, quality materials all because we compared pricing. We saved at least $200 in cash and got a better fence!

Pre-built Sections or Build it From Scratch

Building a fence either way works well. However, using pre-built sections makes the job go a little faster. It means that you have consistency in the fence design in all sections of the fence. We did not compare pricing, however, with the sale price we received, we were happy with the final price.  With a price of $161 for an 8-foot section of fence, we had a very reasonable deal. This includes the 10 foot 4*4 post, sono tube and cement, screw nails, auger to dig the holes. Garbage removal for the old fence is also included. We could have saved some additional money if we had removed the garbage ourselves.

We had to work very hard to remove the old posts and cement. The new holes were dug to at least 42 inches. Once this part of the work was completed, the actual part of the fence building went relatively quickly. Both parties are very happy with the result. Plans are underway to approach other neighbors to build the rest of the fence surrounding our lot the same way.

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