House #1: Bad Neighbors

It’s almost felt as if The Corn House is cursed in our attempt to sell it. We’ve had 8 people who have expressed serious interest in it so far, yet none have actually bought it.

There were a couple people who had minor complaints that couldn’t be rectified (the 6’5″ guy who wanted a big jacuzzi tub in his new bathroom, the woman who didn’t like all the steps to the front door), a couple people who couldn’t get financing, the crazy lady who couldn’t actually make it to closing, etc. On the bright side, we haven’t gotten any negative feedback about the house; nobody has claimed the price was too high, there have been no complaints about the rehab not being nice enough, etc. In fact, we’ve gotten plenty of positive feedback from both potential buyers and agents.

But, it still hasn’t sold…

Then, yesterday, we got a call from an agent who has shown the house a couple times who mentioned to my wife that the next-door neighbor made a visit the last time he took a potential client through. Apparently, the neighbor spent quite a while talking to the prospective buyer, and made a point to mention the terrible shape the house used to be in before we renovated. Additionally, she went out of her way to mention the fact that she believed the kids living there were dealing drugs, the police were often called, and plenty of other negative things that are in no way indicative of the rest of this neighborhood (it’s actually a very quiet, very secluded part of the area).

According to the agent, the neighbor’s discussion went a long way towards turning off his client.

Anyway, I don’t know if the neighbor has a general lack of tact and consideration (she’s definitely a talker, and she’d always been very, very nice to my wife and myself), or if the whole thing was premeditated in attempt to turn these specific buyers away. While I hate to say it, the fact is I wouldn’t be surprised if this neighbor would go out of her way to discourage a minority buyer from buying our house (it’s a predominantly white, older neighborhood). While I have no specific knowledge that the neighbor would discriminate, let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised.

Anyway, this is the only time that I know for certain the neighbor has “visited” the prospective buyer, but who knows if there have been other times that I’ve been unaware of. I definitely plan to say something the next time I stop by the house, in the hope that the neighbor just has bad judgment; but if her actions are malicious attempts to weed out buyers that she feels are “undesirable,” I’m not sure what to do.