Hi,
Happy New Year folks!
My current lease is coming to an end. My current neighbourhood is not great, after moving i realised one of the neighbours is a junkie and thats one of the main reason I am moving but being once beaten twice shy, just looking for ideas how to ensure that I dont get stuck in a similar situation again. Any practical ideas are welcome.
Thanks,
Agreed with this! Door knocking sounds like the best idea. Personally I'd probably buy some cheap chocolate boxes from the 2 dollar shop. Then knock on the neighbors doors and be like hay I'm * and am looking to get the place next to you, and wanted to meet my new neighbors! and give you guys this (chocolate). Then you can make a bit of small talk and ask them what they think of the area. Most likely they'll be more happier to talk since you gave them a present technically. Plus you can see if they look or sound nefarious for only like 6 bucks.
Thing is most other problems don't crop up until about 2 weeks in (even neighbors can be nice at first then change). Unfortunately I don't have much advice for those.
What happens if a junkie moves in the week after OP moves in?
Lol I know what you're saying, but theres nothing I can think of to stop or find out about something like that. Unless OP buys/rents every house in the neighborhood. Then he can be sure no nefarious person lives next door :p.
Make sure the neighbour is not going to complain about using scented laundry powder.
Yep, use unscented White Powder.
There is no guarantee on what a neighbourhood is going to be, almost from week to week. We have rented in some pretty upmarket suburbs and they are the ones where our cars were vandalised - on a number of occassions. We had the neighbour from hell for quite a while, but he sold to a really lovely lady. I used to collect syringes from our street and take them to the disposal place, but it is still better than the Catholic University we now have where there kids are strewn across the road smoking, and dropping their cigarette butts, whilst we try to manouvre the car down the street. (However, the Uni assure us that they are only concerned about the safety of their students - I presume that is why they can't find them a safe place to smoke).
The point of my rant is that neighbours come and go and the only thing you can guarantee is that there will be change over time. Get to know your neighbours, there are some really nice people out there, and find out if there is anything major that is being done in the area.
Whilst you can never really predict a bad neighbor, I spend some time (a good hour or two) down at the closest supermarket and shopping centre to get a feel for the kind of people that live nearby.
Talk to neighbours if you are not too shy.
Go there at night (especially weekend) to see if there is any wild party/ loud music / dog barking….
Just go door knocking, pretend you are promoting a religion or electricity company or something.