Ignorance is bliss, until your local HOA starts hounding you about the appearance of your home. Sometimes you can be completely unaware that you are the neighbor that everyone gripes about. Take a look at this list to see if you might be the rotten apple of your neighborhood.
The first thing is if you are not taking care of maintenance on your furnace, then you might be a bad neighbor. If you could make a sweater with the fur found in your furnace filter, this is a serious problem. If you want to keep your HVAC system running like a champ, you need to make sure that you are replacing your furnace filter once a month, otherwise it will keep clogging particles like pet hair and dust.
One of the most obvious ways that you can be a bad neighbor is if you are neglectful of the outside of your home. If your lawn is completely overgrown, you have weeds everywhere, there is trash or other debris on your lawn, this is not going to make your neighbors happy. If your house has a dumpy appearance, it is going to bring down the property value of the neighborhood, because nobody is going to want to live near a house that looks bad from the outside.
Similarly, if the exterior of your home has shutters that are falling off, shingles missing on the roof, windows that are broken, or paint that is flaking on the outside, these are all signs of not taking care of your home, and it could be upsetting to your neighbors. When you have a home, you want to take pride in it, and that starts with the curb appeal of your home. You want to make sure you keep up with exterior maintenance projects so your home never gets to the point of looking like it should be torn down.
Also, in terms of keeping up with the exterior of your home, you want to make sure that your sidewalk, walkways and driveway are not hazardous. Over time, all of these elements will start to deteriorate, and if there are big cracks or holes, you want to make sure you have that repaired. You may need to have your driveway repaved or seal off cracks on your walkway. Not only will this make your house look nicer, it takes away the hazard of someone tripping and getting hurt on your property.
It is also important that you are aware of and respect the property boundary lines. If you have pets or children, you want to make sure that they stay on your property when you are outside, unless you have been given permission by your neighbors to go onto their property. A great way to ensure this happens is to have a fence. Fences can add to the aesthetic of your home, and are also a great way of clearly defining the property line.
Nobody wants to have the house that all the neighbors are talking about in a negative way, so make sure that you keep up with exterior home repairs and keep your home looking nice.
