Underbidding neighbor tries to make new landowner's life difficult, they return the favor: '[He] was upset I bought the property he wanted'

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Jun 11, 2024 6:00 PM EDT

When you're looking to buy property you're classically given advice by your older relatives that you should go around the neighborhood knocking on doors and asking people who live there what they think of the area. While sound advice it comes from an era long past where community was a staple part of everyday life. Nowadays you can go years without ever meeting the people living across the street so you probably don't care what they think of the area and, besides, who is honestly going to tell you that they hate where they live?

This now optimistic advice presents a few problems. What if one of those people has a personal interest in the property… or otherwise has prejudice or other motivation for discouraging you from pursuing it? If you're looking to surprise competition with an early offer you may just end up showing your hand. 

While having good neighbors and not having bad ones is important for many reasons, that will always be a grab bag… Nothing is stopping your neighbors from moving away at any point and tipping the scales in the other direction anyway.

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  • This neighbor had their eyes on purchasing the land that this new homeowner was the top bidder on, with the neighbor being the underbidder on the property. Embittered, the neighbor set about being as miserable as possible as if that would somehow right the wrong they felt had been done against them. Well, two can play at that game, and misery loves company, so the homeowner decided to join the fun.

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    Cheezburger Image 10359947776
    via Alvin Engler
  • 02
    I bought the property he wanted, he was a about it TL,DR: A guy was upset that I bought the property he wanted, so he was an about it. I make a lot of noise to annoy him and today he broke. The backstory: here in Sweden there is a huge difference in house prices between popular areas and major cities, compared to the countryside. This meant that I was able to buy a small fixer-upper house at the
    via u/lillpers
  • 03
    age of 23 (4 years ago) on a very average income. There was only me and one other bidder involved, and I eventually won the bidding at a reasonable price. The house is located a bit outside town with only one other house next to it, as well as an empty lot. Shortly after moving in an older guy came knocking on my door. He told me he was the other bidder and the owner of the empty property, and he only wanted my
    via u/lillpers
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    house in order to tear it down and make more space for his friend's RVs. He finished by essentially saying "enjoy your pile of junk". Since then he has spent most of the summers in a lawn chair next to his RV on the empty property, with a clear view up my driveway and shooting me dirty looks every time I walked or drove by.
    via u/lillpers
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    Now as I said, the house is a project and I've made many improvements over the years as time and money has allowed. There is always something that needs doing on the house, and I'm also the designated mechanic for friends and family. There is usually a car or two getting repaired in my garage. This means lots of noisy tools.
    via u/lillpers
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    I've made sure to always start some kind of project when I see him sit down in his chair. This has gone on for a few summers now. He gives me dirty looks, I make noise. Only on reasonable hours though. I don't do anything he can reasonably complain about. Today I continued on my bedroom remodelling and it seems my circular saw finally broke him. He turned his RV around and put the chair in the opposite direction. Where there is an actual view, as compared to my driveway. I see this as a total vi
    via u/lillpers
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    boluserectus · 16 hr. ago • Maybe you ask him for the bottom price for his lot, so you can expand, build vacation. houses, and I can come and visit!
    via u/lillpers
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    augustwestburgundy 16 hr. ago good for you, if he wanted the property, he should have paid up for it, your revenge will be when you decide to move, you will not sell it to him
    via u/lillpers
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    AdWorking2848 · 15 hr. ago Put up lots of fake sale sign posts in the interim. Hahah and a fake "sold" after few months
    via u/lillpers
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    2a3b66725 16 hr. ago In military terminology, this is called a "low intensity conflict". You do seem to be winning the long game here. Congratulations.
    via u/lillpers
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    SuperFLEB 13 hr. ago Since then he has spent most of the summers in a lawn chair next to his RV on the empty property, with a clear view up my driveway and shooting me dirty looks every time I walked or drove by. "I'm gonna... waste my summer at you! That'll show you!"
    via u/lillpers
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    Inigo Montoya1985 · 12 hr. ago It might be Sweden, but you Finnished him.
    via u/lillpers
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    madhaus 15 hr. ago • What nice about this story is it's as low stakes as petty revenge can get. He sat in his chair glaring at you and you ran loud power tools during acceptable work hours. A nice change from "My boss fired me for losing one staple so I burned his house down hahaha."
    via u/lillpers
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    ChoosenUserName4 14 hr. ago • We were looking around for a house that had been on the market for a couple of months, a fixer upper for which we thought the asking price was too high (my wife is an architect, so she knows). We made an offer well below asking. The seller and real estate agent told us that the house was in the process of being sold, but that the potential buyers hadn't shown up for the paperwork at the notary twice in a row. Both times they used this as an excuse to get the price d
    via u/lillpers
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    They had a third appointment planned for that afternoon. The seller asked us for proof that we could pay, and told us to show up at the meeting saying that if they're more than 5 minutes late, he'd sell the house to us right there and then for a price below our bid (the price the other potential buyers wanted to pay).
    via u/lillpers
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    So of course they didn't show up, and we signed the contract that afternoon. We could see on the contract (in which our names were written in and the other potential buyers were blacked out but still visible) that it was one of our new neighbors. Boy were they at us, telling us we paid too much, etc. That got us into a cold war over neighborhood gossip, property lines, hedges, noise, and fences resulting in them moving somewhere else a couple of years later.
    via u/lillpers
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    I literally told him that it's not our fault that they applied a risky negotiation strategy.
    via u/lillpers
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    • Ayavea 16 hr. ago If reddit taught me anything, this guy's next move might be putting up an actual pigsty (barn full of pigs) directly adjacent to your lot. So tread with caution.
    via u/lillpers
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    briomio 14 hr. ago I would consider a wall of junipers between your house and his lot to bock his view should he decide to reposition that RV back to spying on you.
    via u/lillpers
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    Fragrant-Reserve4832 14 hr. ago There isn't enough petty in this for my taste. I demand you cut all your left over wood into kindling using a chop/circular saw lillpers OP 14 hr. ago I did, in fact, make firewood out of everything I tore down. in the bedroom, including the wall from a former walk in closet, so quite a lot. Rest assured noise has been made
    via u/lillpers
  • 21
    JayJ9Nine 12 hr. ago What absolutely salty privileged behavior lol. 'I wouldn't overpay for what I'm describing as junk so I'm upset with you' >;[
    via u/lillpers

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hoa neighbors malicious compliance neighborhood homeowner neighborhood-drama bad neighbors neighborhood-stories terrible neighbors Bad Neighbor neighbor
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