Crap, I think we just offended the neighbors

I had a listing that had some neighbors that were nice neighbors, but their yard was somewhat of an eyesore. It really wasn't as much the yard as it was the house. It also needed some touch up and my seller was willing to help out.

You see, in today's world my seller and I figured the reason for not painting the house and doing the up keep on the yard was because of the lack of money. But, it turns out that they just didn't see a reason too.

This is where we went from being helpful to (apparently) offensive. My seller offered to pay to have his yard professionally cleaned up, landscaped, and to have the side of the house that faced him painted at no cost to the owners next door. But, I guess they didn't see it as a way to help him sell his house, but rather as an insult to how they kept their yard and house.

Now, we had an angry neighbor who wanted to do what ever they could to make the yard as ugly as possible. Kids toys everywhere, lawn equipment left out, yard debris piled next to the fence, but the one that really said it all was while trying to show the home having their kid come out and pee on the fence.

I think we have a problem. I said and we need to figure out what to do about it. We went and talked to the neighbor and explained it wasn't the seller that was upset with the yard, they had lived next door to each other for 5 years and he thought he was a great neighbor, but the feedback was saying otherwise.

They sat down, hammered out their differences, and the yard got cleaned up, the house painted and my client got his home sold. This could have gone on for forever, it could have gone to court. But instead, two level headed people sat down and discussed what the real issue was and worked out a compromise over a mis-understanding.

What do you do when you offend someone? Do you walk away and ignore the situation, or be upfront and say your sorry? Or do you work something out so they can understand your side of the story? Lucky my seller did the latter and it worked out great for him, but it certainly could have been a lot worse! What would you have done in this situation?

Todd Clark - Broker / Sales Coach
Palazzo Realty Group
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739

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