A Clinton, Iowa, man complained to city officials that he can’t use his pool because of the odor produced by his neighbor’s 45 cats.
Residents of a San Bernardino, Calif., neighborhood petitioned the city council to outlaw “Santa’s Fantasy Land,” a neighbor’s year-round Christmas display.
A suburban St. Louis man was charged with disturbing the peace after he admitted performing witchcraft to scare a neighbor with whom he was having a dispute over a shared driveway.
The files of municipal code enforcement officers bulge with neighborly complaints such as these and more mundane protests over high grass, junk cars and loud stereos.
For many home buyers, checking out potential neighbors is at the end of a lengthy to-do list, if it makes the list at all. But experts suggest evaluating all aspects of your immediate neighborhood may be as important as inspecting the structural integrity of the home. And you don’t need a private detective. It can be as simple as taking a walk or reading the newspaper.
“One of the best ways is to knock on doors and say, `Listen I’m thinking about moving into the neighborhood, what do you think?'” said Sgt. Steve Cargie, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department.
Cargie used the technique when he bought his home in Logan Square in 1998.
He approached four or five neighbors and asked them all three questions: What is your biggest concern? Have you personally experienced any crime? If you could change one thing in this neighborhood, what would it be?
It takes a little bit of legwork and an assertive nature, Cargie concedes.
Syndicated real estate columnist Ellen James Martin calls interviewing neighbors “absolutely paramount” in determining whether you want to live in a neighborhood.
“Realtors who once eschewed this idea now embrace it because they realize there are so many intangibles that can be discovered through the informal chatting over the fence conversation,” Martin said. “Neighbors will tell you the naked truth. There’s always a blabbermouth around.
“You obviously don’t want to go up to the neighbor and ask them what’s wrong with the neighborhood,” Martin said. “Say something like, `We love this neighborhood; we’d like to buy a house here.’ Give them a sense of context why you’re asking questions and a sense of pride.”
Martin also recommends walking the neighborhood and chatting with merchants, coffee shop patrons and the mailman. “He’ll tell you about the dog situation.”
Angela Schroth and her fiance, Gregory Liegel, never considered approaching potential neighbors before buying their two-flat in in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood in April. But the couple did a lot of walking in the neighborhood and around local parks and schools and stopped in at neighborhood restaurants.
“You do look at the yards and if they’re kept up,” Schroth said. “It’s like dating. You look for a guy with clean fingernails.”
Schroth and Liegel made it a point to visit the neighborhood at different times of day, a practice Toni Sherman, a real estate agent in Glen Ellyn and spokeswoman for the Chicago-based Council of Residential Specialists, endorses.
“I have had buyers go to the school bus stop early in the morning to check out the high school kids being picked up,” she said.
Notice homes that seem to have a lot of cars in the driveway or several mailboxes. They may be rentals, said Betsy Green, an agent with Lincoln Park Homes. Owners are more motivated to maintain their property than renters, she said.
Want to find out if there are any restrictions on year-round Christmas displays? Sherman suggests buyers check local government ordinances and subdivision covenants, where you can also learn whether you (or your neighbors) can build a 6-foot privacy fence, how many people are allowed to occupy a home and whether neighboring property is zoned for redevelopment.
Buyers should do the checking themselves, Sherman said. “Or at the very least, ask for proof if the information is provided by the seller or a third party.”
The Naperville planning department often fields questions from potential buyers about plans for nearby property, said Bill Boyle, a code inspector for the city.
He notes buyers can also ask to see any formal complaints that have been filed. He’s handled calls about everything from a family that hung its laundry out of their windows to an elderly woman whose house had been overrun by feral cats.
“The old-fashioned way of reading the local newspapers is also helpful to see what changes in zoning or proposed new developments or shopping centers may be in the planning stages,” Sherman said.
While the Internet teems with horror stories on gripe sites like “Neighbors from Hell” and “Redneck Neighbor,” it’s also a plentiful source of useful information. Though it’s a little tricky to find, the Chicago Police’s online Citizen ICAM database (See accompanying list of Web sites.) provides a summary of reported crimes in a given neighborhood.
It’s just a snapshot, said Cargie, the police spokesman, but it gives people an idea of what’s going on in the neighborhood.
Thinking of her boyfriend’s 7-year-old son, Drake, Valerie Vytlacil checked out the Chicago Police’s sex offender registry online before buying her home near Humboldt Park in February. Though she found a few offenders listed as living in the general area, none were near enough to dissuade her from her purchase.
“I didn’t have suspicions,” Vylacil said. “I just wanted to be aware.”
Several Web sites also provide detailed demographic data by neighborhood. For example, the MSN House & Home site includes median age and income as well as the percentage of the population that commutes.
The Chicago Neighborhoods Web page displays pictures of about two dozen Chicago neighborhoods, while the Buena Park Neighbors (in Uptown) site offers information on local businesses and events as well as a forum for candid discussions of neighborhood issues.
Cargie recommends attending neighborhood association and police beat meetings.
“It’s a good indication of community involvement,” he said. “Strong involved communities generally have less crime.”
In the end, no matter how much investigating you do, surprises can happen. Who knows when a witchcraft-practicing neighbor might move next door? That’s why Betsy Green urges her clients to focus on the value of the house.
“If you bought the house based on someone who lives next door who is really nice, they may move,” Green said. “It’s always a leap of faith.”
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Check it out on the Web
Here are Web addresses of the agencies and organizations in our story.
– Chicago Police Citizen ICAM — http://12.17.79.6/ctznicam/ctznicam.asp
– Chicago Police Department Registered Sex Offender Database — http://12.17.79.4/
– State of Illinois Sex Offender Registry — http://www.isp.state.il.us/sor/
– MSN House & Home — http://houseandhome.msn.com/move/moveoverview.aspx
– Chicago Neighborhoods — http://neighborhoods.chicago.il.us/
– Buena Park Neighbors — http://www.buenaparkneighbors.org/
