Eight foot paver walls around the ugly property usually will do the trick. LOL :)

Seriously, the seller can call the township or city there are usually ordinances that will prohibit the overgrown lawn and the trash piling up out front. A quick complaint will help to clean up some of the debris.

I showed a lovely home that my buyers loved but the neighbors had about 6 pitbulls and there was no privacy fence the dogs were chained.  I suggested fencing in the entire property.

Agreed with Diane...I'm sure their are ordinances so putting a call into the nieghborhood association, township, or city will usually do the trick!

If the city doesn't help, perhaps she could visit with the neighbor and offer to pay for yard services while the house is on the market? 

I have actually asked the neighbors if someone could come and clean up the yards.  I have found that once a few homes in an area start taking care of their homes others seem to follow.  Oviously this is not always true, but when it does happen it is a great thing for the community and the homeowners,

J.

I have had and am currently having the same problem, and was thinking about throwing out this question on AR, so I'll be watching what ideas others come up with.

With one seller the problem was more of an issue in the back yard which was fenced with see-through chain-link. We discussed reducing the price but decided to plant 8-10 ft tall row of arborvitae for instant screening. $1000 buys several arborvitae and is cheaper than the amount of the price discount we would have had to take. It worked.

It's sad when the feedback comes back as, "buyer not sure about the neighborhood" when the problem is just with a couple houses. That's the problem we're currently facing. There are a couple homes in stages of foreclosure. The HOA is having the lawns mowed, but the landscape beds are full of weeds as are the lawns. The homes are in compliance with city/HOA rules, but it's obvious that they are below the rest of the neighborhood - which is neat and tidy.

Well the weeds that are overgrown to the 2nd floor windows are on the side of the home and actually in the front yard. It is a total disaster and I am going to suggest making the call to the city to resolve it. I had taken a photo of the side of that home when I took the listing photos. I have enclosed a photo for you to view what I am talking about. This is just a sample of the curb appeal issue.

I think it is a real shame when a seller has to suffer because of lack of pride in homeownership!

Okay, how do you get that awesome streaming slideshow on the right hand side?  That's way too cool!  Please blog on how you do that!!!!! 

Natalie- I would be more than happy to set up a blog about making the slide show! I will do that tomorrow so come on back and check it out!

Usually in town they will make them clean the yard up.

I once testified at a court case for a property owner who brought a lawsuit against the neighbor for loss of value, because of the effects of the neighbors exterior appearance had on my clients home. The neighbor had been, over the years, turning their rural acreage into a dump. At that time, there were no zoning rules to prevent this and they were dumping piles of construction debris in the yard. The suit was over diminished property values due to the neighbors unsightly property. It cost thousands of dollars to take them to court but they won, as the judge ordered it clean up with in 60 days. As there was not any other way to win but with court action in that case, I would think in an urban area you would have a municipal law to prevent what is going on. Neighbors poorly kept lawns do affect value, right now in town we have one owner who has planted a corn field in the front yard and it has created quite a controversy around town. The neighbor's have complained but to no avail, it is still there.

Maureen, I had a lot of problems posting sorry for it, don't know what happened.

Mary- That is just awful that they had to go to that extent to get it resolved and the cost too- were they able to recover the money spent?

My client hired his attorney to sue for clean up, not money, and won only that.  As they could not prove how much money the neighbor's mess caused as a loss in value, just that it was a nuisance and would cause buyers to not buy this property. That is what I testified to, how in my experience a buyers will not be willing to purchase property adjoining one which is so unsightly due to the dumping. The party that was sued had to pay the court cost, but not the attorney fees. The judge also issued an injunction with a fine to prevent any more dumping in the future and it was ordered to be cleaned up.

Recalling an AR post, about houses that get nicknamed: The photo is a house in our town with a front yard victory garden, where the neighbors now call it the Children of the Corn house, LOL. Petitions have been circulated to get them to harvest the corn and to zone against planting vegetables in any front yards. However, the city had done nothing yet. The owners of the garden feel they are saving the earth from green house gases emitted by using a lawn mower. The belief is...It is better to plant fence post to fence post and eat off the land...then to cut grass. We have a very outspoken, well organized, organic, enviromental population in Virqoua WI.

Mary- That is just insane- you have a back yard so why would you want to "infest" your front yard with a corn field? I do not understand the reasoning behind it yet some folks see nothing wrong with the lack of pride in their home ownership.

As for your sellers- good for them! they may not have seen money but at least they made their point and hopefully set an example for future issues in that location. The statement was made and at least they won their case.