CHICAGO - Fresh paint, a new front door and colorful landscaping are often surefire ways to tease potential buyers over the threshold of a home for sale. Yet sometimes, no matter how perfect your pansies, nothing can draw their gaze past the tired-looking two-story buried in weeds next door.

More than 60 percent of 900 people surveyed by contractor-referral site ServiceMagic.com said they have or have had neighbors who make the street look bad by not taking care of the outside of their homes. Twenty-one percent of respondents admitted to being the culprit.

Common problems: tall weeds and grass, imposing trees or a dying lawn; piled-up junk, particularly old cars; and peeling paint or a visible defect in the exterior, such as a broken window.
Sloppy properties aren’t exclusive to older dwellings in established or up-and-coming neighborhoods. Bad habits are on display in new developments too, say real estate experts.

Neighborhood eyesores aren’t a new or uncommon problem. But curb appeal, yours and the neighborhood’s, takes on greater significance in a nationwide buyer’s market. For buyers, eyesores might present yet one more negotiating advantage. Remember, appraisals factor in the condition of nearby properties.

Michael Lee, a realty broker for 30 years in the San Francisco Bay area and author of Black Belt Negotiating, says sellers near eyesores “don’t have to have a fire sale, but do need to put their listing at a price that attracts plenty of traffic . . . or risk having a home that just sits on the market.”

“That is death,” he says. “It becomes the tainted house.”

The National Association of Realtors says an eyesore can shave about 10 percent off the value of a nearby listing. Most real estate experts, though, stress that there are market-by-market differences that can affect that percentage and a wide range of situations, from a seemingly benign overgrown lawn across the street to a boarded-up property right next door.

“If there are or were other similar eyesores in the area but the market is heading up, it’s likely that the home will get fixed up or torn down sooner than later. If it’s the only house in the area that looks bad, it can have a greater impact on the resale of neighboring homes,” says Bob Golden, a 20-year Atlanta agent with Re/Max.

Size up the situation

Approaching a neighbor can be uncomfortable to say the least. In the ServiceMagic survey, 75 percent of respondents said they had made no direct contact with their neighbors over the issue; 18 percent said when they confronted their neighbor, it created tension and the house still looked bad; 4 percent said their talk produced a satisfactory outcome and another 4 percent said the problem was fixed, but it created lingering tension.

Neglected properties likely belong to one of two types of people: those physically or financially unable to keep up with the work and those who purposely buck social norms, says Tara-Nicholle Nelson of Oakland, Calif., a broker, an author and creator of female-focused resource site rethinkrealestate.com.

Knowing what you’re dealing with is the key.

“In Black Belt [the book], we talk about ’spying’ on your opponent, true in martial arts and in any negotiation situation,” says Lee.

In some cases, the homeowner might have just taken on new responsibilities and has fallen behind — for example, started a new job — or is facing unexpected health issues. Bringing your concern to the neighbor’s attention might do the trick. Stress that keeping up the condition of the neighborhood helps the value of all properties. Think: What’s in it for us. Not: What’s in it for me.

A group effort might pay off. Some local branches of the National Association of Realtors have created funds that help older or otherwise incapacitated homeowners keep up their exteriors. Getting other neighbors to rally behind your cause might bear more fruit and might come across as neighborhood improvement projects, not the ranting of a picky neighbor.

Absentee owners — say, if the property is rented out — might require plenty of correspondence, so don’t wait until right before you put your home on the market. If the out-of-town party is agreeable to changes, it might make sense for the local seller to offer to secure contractors or other necessary laborers.

Ask for more than you think you’re going to get, says Lee. Your fallback position, then, is that you will take care of making the fixes, either financially or physically.

The unexpected sweat equity to resolve someone el- se’s problem might seem more hassle than help, but that first impression is everything these days. Consider this: Lee says he once took a pass on a $750,000 listing just because the sellers refused to repaint their dog-scratched front door.

Call in the authorities
If personal negotiation stalls, or if hostile neighbors become threatening, there is a solution. Residents sometimes can lean on municipal laws, administered through the building department, health department or similar entity, to get neighbors to clean up their act, says Neil Garfinkel, a Manhattan real estate attorney with Abrams Garfinkel Margolis Bergson LLP.

Some areas levy fines for keeping around piles of wood that attract animals, as one example. Municipal codes can be dense, if not interesting, reading. Nelson says that her home city of Oakland includes an anti-rooster ordinance on its books.

Asked about bringing in the authorities, some 20 percent in the ServiceMagic survey said they “snitched” on their neighbors, another 20 percent said they intended to bring in the authorities but hadn’t yet, while 14 percent said someone else in the neighborhood beat them to it. The remaining 41 percent said they just put up with the nearby eyesore.
The process of resolving a complaint can be long and time consuming, the real estate experts say.

Eye of the beholder

Kina Lane, principal in Sunflower Development Partners, which buys and sells property in Chicago, Wilmington, Del., and her own neighborhood of New York’s Harlem, stresses that eyesores are subjective. Real estate, like any investment, carries risk and reward. Proximity to eyesores might present a buying opportunity to some and keep others from even getting out of the car.

Some buyers, such as Lane, see a mix of fixer-uppers and ongoing projects as a fruitful challenge; others can’t get past what’s likely to be daily construction noise for several months or years. Urban house-hunters might be more tolerant of an eclectic mix of building styles and ranges of condition compared with suburban or rural buyers, she adds.

Eyesores aren’t restricted to homes, says Lane. The mix of nearby commercial properties might not fit everyone’s sensibilities — a liquor store at the end of the block, for instance. Other potential buyers might, in fact, enjoy the proximity of retail stores.

Empty industrial or retail buildings can have a negative impact as well. A potential buyer is left wondering if an area is on the rise or on the decline. A seller setting a listing price must keep the entire feel of the neighborhood in mind, Lane says.

Sometimes the house down the street is in good condition, but its purple facade and lawn sculptures don’t speak to everyone’s taste. Whether homes need to conform by city ordinance to the general architectural feel of a particular street varies by area, so check the rules.

In this case, says Lee, expand beyond conventional marketing venues to go after potential buyers who would welcome living in an eclectic neighborhood. Post your listing in galleries and restaurants, in independent newspapers and on personal-ad Web sites such as Craigslist.com.

Develop a buyer profile and then go after that buyer, he says.
Source:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sunday/homes/orl-eyesore0907sep09,0,656610.story