Your Southern California Neighbor Is Watching You

That kind of encounter puts a bad taste in showing a home. I had a similar encounter when I lived in a waterfront condo community. My neighbor came running out of her unit screaming "Don't feed the ducks! Don't feed the ducks!" Needless to say, it wasn't the best way to meet my new neighbor.

I hope you get rain soon!

Karen, the rain thing has got to be tough out there.  We're getting a lot more than our share in this area and are getting worried about wet basements.  You make us look lucky.

Neighbors can really hurt or help a sale can't they? I imagine your drought is a highly sensitive subject for many people. We're seeing it up in Seattle as well, many people I know whose wells have gone dry because someone decided they needed to water their lawn until it was Emerald Green. Crazy!

Up here it is the use of weed killer.  They've been banned in Canada and you can tell by their lawns who is smuggling it in from the States, LOL  

Hope you get rain soon!

I honestly hope that never happens here.  I'd be not so nice.  I'd likely end up in jail.  I'll water when i want to water.

When I go to the store in Carmel-by-the-Sea, I make sure not to say "nice day, isn't it" - you know, the ice breaker that normally works. Nope, now they glare at you. Yes, it's that bad. Yes, that happened to me.

Karen- I think it is a law of nature that every neighborhood has to have at least one crazy.  When we had our water shortage years ago, you were allowed a very small amount of time to rinse your boat off after docking.  If you don't, salt damages very quickly.  We had a neighbor that must have planted herself at a window to be the watchdog for every boater. 

When water gets tight, people gt very sensitive especially if they fear the neighbor's use of water could mean they don't have any down the road

LOL Yeah I hear you on that. Some people are simply better left living farther away

Hi Karen.  I, too, hope that you will soon get some meaningful rainfall.  Otherwise this type of situation will continue to get worse.

I've seen this happen in Charlotte when we had a drought a few years ago and some towns put a total stop to lawn watering. People were doing amazing things in the middle of the night!

Hi Karen, maybe the agent remarks should read "beware of the neighbor". And maybe that rain will make everyone nicer again.

That doesnt start a showing off right :) . 1) it is better to water in the am (like 5 am) then there is less chance of any water borne infection on the grass. 2) not practical everywhere... but we have started installing wells on our build projects / residential lots. A "bit" of a cost.... but takes away the fear we have in North Calif. 3) a realtor friend is now...(ok wait for it......) painting the dead front lawns in our area green. It costs .15 cents a square foot. ! > no harm to the enviroment. lasts a few months.

mike