'My gut feeling told me to run': First-time homebuyer backs out 3 days before closing after discovering nightmare neighbors next door

Author image for Isabella Penn
Isabella Penn
Sep 8, 2024 9:00 AM EDT

That's the thing about buying a house: you can do all the research you want, but you never know what the neighbors are going to be like until it's too late. You can spend countless hours touring all the homes for sale in your city until you finally find your dream home, only to have that dream crushed by a couple of entitled neighbors. Neighbors can really set the tone of your daily life, for better or for worse. You might expect it to be like the movies, where you move into a new neighborhood, and all your new neighbors stop by to drop off a housewarming gift and swap numbers, but then you end up with a Karen neighbor like this. 

But luckily, this first-time homebuyer was able to dodge a bullet - three days before closing on his family's dream house. He may have lost out on a lot of money, but it's better than losing out on the next however many years of your life dealing with people you don't want to be around. 

Advertisement
  • 01
    r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer odattt Just backed out 3 days before closing. Neighbors ruined it!. Did I do the right thing?.
    via u/odattt
  • 02
    Hello guys. Unfortunately I had to back out 3 days before closing and I'm feeling some regret. I think I did the right thing?. We found a really nice townhome about a month ago about 2 hours from where we
    via u/odattt
  • 03
    live. It's in north western Indiana . I live in Wisconsin right now. Drove by the neighborhood a couple of times and it seemed really quiet...until this last weekend!. I am Jordanian and my wife is white. I work in real estate and
    via u/odattt
  • 04
    my wife in finance and we are a professional couple. As soon as we got there, the neighbor and a bunch of other neighbors were outside sitting. The building has 4 townhomes. All of the neighbors were shirtless, tattooed up and bald. They were
    via u/odattt
  • 05
    all drinking and extremely unfriendly to me although I was being very nice. They kept giving me dirty looks. They also knew everyone's business. To top it off, when I went to check out my backyard, the neighbor had 2 dogs chained up
    via u/odattt
  • 06
    to her porch. I had big plans to fix my back porch up but from what I could tell, the dogs are out there most of the time and they bark!. She said she doesn't have a TV and runs a clothes cleaning business from her home and trains her dogs.
    via u/odattt
  • 07
    Anyway, I felt so out of place and unwelcome there. My gut feeling told me to run so I called off and canceled. My wife and kids felt the same. My wife works from home so she needs peace. We are also very quiet people. I
    via u/odattt
  • 08
    ended up losing my earnest money. Woke up this morning with some regrets as I was so close to closing but oh well. My advice to anyone is if you plan on buying a house, visit multiple times especially on the weekend!.
    via u/odattt
  • 09
    flyingbye0803 • 1d ago You may have a few small regrets that you think of now but imagine the regret of waking up to that noise and atmosphere everyday. You made the right choice. Houses are all about location location location and that means neighbors too
    via u/flyingbye0803
  • 10
    RiverParty442 • 1d ago You don't want to buy a home and feel unwelcome right away. If you truly felt unwelcome and thought you would hate where you live(especially considering you would share a wall) then you made the right choice. It's not like renting where you can stick it out for a year
    via u/RiverParty442
  • 11
    • Former-Counter-9588 1d ago You probably did the right thing. With townhomes, shared wall neighbors can be a huge factor. If I had known that one of my neighbors has terrorized every owner of my unit for the last 30 years over the assigned parking spots (each unit has assigned parking but due to the structure, the spots don't line up in front of the corresponding units), I would have probably made a different decision myself.
    via u/Former-Counter-9588
  • 12
    roberbear • 1d ago This definitely reads like you were about to move into some kind of hellscape. Trust your gut and your family's gut. Good call.
    via u/roberbear
  • 13
    Historical Tomato374 ⚫ 1d ago You did the right thing, OP. I would like to add to your advice about visiting the home you want to buy at different times of the day on both weekdays and weekends. My realtor even suggested we hang out on the porch one evening to get a good idea of how the neighborhood feels (the owner had already moved out). We met at the house
    via u/Historical_Tomato374
  • 14
    and he brought a couple of camp chairs and some beverages and we got to chat with the neighbors and people that walked by — that experience sold me on the - property and I'm grateful he went above and beyond to help me find my home.
    via u/Historical_Tomato374
  • 15
    unlikely intuition . 1d ago believe me, you dodged a bullet. you have no idea how that toxic environment would have negatively impacted your entire family's mental and physical health. definitely look for somewhere without white trash.
    via u/unlikely_intuition
  • 16
    fpsfiend_ny • 1d ago Lmfaoo. You did the right thing. You wont be able to rest in that warzone, your cars will be with, dogs will on your property, your mail, just an endless list of things. I would have done the same.
    via u/fpsfiend_ny
  • 17
    • majesticalexis ⚫ 1d ago I grew up in northwest Indiana. I feel like I have a good idea of where you were going to buy. You did the right thing.
    via u/majesticalexis
  • 18
    dallas6689 • 1d ago From someone with awful neighbors, you did the right thing. Our biggest regret when we bought our house was not paying attention to the houses on either side. We are now 6 years in and want to move desperately and we love our house.
    via u/dallas6689
  • 19
    Sale Pending
    via RDNE Stock project

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

neighbors neighborhood-drama homebuyer entitled new homebuyers reddit thread Bad Neighbor Reddit home entitled people
Scroll Down For The Next Article