What would you do: Property/real estate version

[catherine]

So, things I have shared so far:

• My son is renting our house with 2 years left to make a decision as to whether they want to move or buy.
• My property has forsythia as property boundaries/privacy screens. The privacy screens really were mainly useful for privacy between our house and the house next door. The other two sides of our home are bound by a public park and provide a sense of spaciousness and a lovely view of a beautiful, treed park.
• Two years ago I came home to our NJ home to find that our new neighbors (they bought the house that was previously my BIL/MIL's house) had literally chopped the forsythias in half because apparently they objected to the branches hanging over their property. However, they never expressed this to us.

So, now my son is just closing out Year #1 on the rental agreement. He advised us that the forsythias are basically dead and the landscaper suggested that we remove them. My son and DIL understandably want some privacy between these two homes, so they got a quote for removing the nearly dead forsythia and replacing with some type of evergreen, like arbor vitae, to provide privacy. The bill for that would be $3800. They would actually prefer a fence. A fence, for their purposes, really only needs to run along one side of the yard--the part between our house and the neighbors.

What would you do? Here are the issues at play:

• I don't know how long my son will be there. Could be anywhere from about 3-4 months to forever.
• I'm not sure if the fence would pay for itself if they move and we put the house on the market
• If I got a fence, would the house be more marketable with a fence that surrounds the back yard? I hate to do that because the veiw of the park is beautiful.
• What, if anything, do I communicate to the neighbors? I suspect nothing, because I said nothing when they originally hacked the bushes to pieces, but is there any benefit to letting them know what boundaries are? And their actions cost us a bundle?

What would you do?

[Teacher Terry]

I wouldn’t pay for a fence. It probably won’t do any good to tell your neighbors they are idiots. You don’t want them to ruin a sale.

[catherine]

I wouldn’t pay for a fence. It probably won’t do any good to tell your neighbors they are idiots. You don’t want them to ruin a sale.

Would you pay for anything? How would you handle the privacy issue?

[happystuff]

I would check, but some areas required that the installation of a fence requires notification to the effected/neighboring property owners and, possibly, a permit.

[Yppej]

When I had bad neighbors I planted false sunflowers. This perennial grows 10 feet tall and nothing kills it. They spread like crazy and I got some for free from someone trying to get rid of them. If you don't cut them down at the end of the season their ugly shriveled dead stalks will continue to provide a tall barrier that will send a very clear message to the neighbors that they should have accepted the forsythias. They are unsightly enough once done blooming in late summer/early fall that the neighbor might put up a fence.

[Tybee]

We had similar problem so we put privacy fence to screen our yard from neighbors, where they could see, and picket to back up to prairie, so we kept our prairie view:

two fences.jpg

[iris lilies]

I wouldn’t put any more money into that property, I certainly wouldn’t fence the lovely vista going to the public park expanse.Your son is a renter, he rented it the way it is, I would not be putting that improvement in for a renter.

We just moved our big forsythia planting and divided it into a row so that three years down the road it’ll be a nice border at the edge of our property. But they do get thin and wispy, and during the winter they lose their leaves, so they’re not a perfect privacy barrier.

[Tybee]

Sorry about the upside down picture, don't know how to fix it.
I would not put anymore landscaping in; they might just cut those down, too.

If your son or you puts up a fence, that will improve the property in a way landscaping will not. If you fence in whole yard, it will improve property for buyers with kids or dogs.

Can your son put up a fence, maybe with your husband's help, or his brothers? We put up ours and it only took a couple of days. It wasn't that expensive; we got panels delivered from Lowes.

If he does not want to put up a whole fence, then yes, privacy fence between your house and the neighbor house is a great idea. A buyer would like this, too, as they would like the privacy it affords.

[catherine]

happystuff, having to speak to the neighbors would at least let me vent my grievance with them.. I suspect they wouldn't mind the fence, but I don't know...

Yppej: haha, that's one way to get back at them, but I don't know if I want to deal with overgrown perennials!

Tybee: That's what I was thinking! Some kind of stockade fence on the property boundaries between our two houses, but maybe a picket fence on the other two sides for the view and the ability to contain kids and pets. The only quirk with that option is that we actually appear to own up to the two large trees on each corner of "our" property, but our property line actually is about 6 feet shy of those trees. So then we have to decide: do we build the fence on Township property, but consistent with the yard that it looks like we own, or do we build the fence consistent with the survey, which will look weird and make the yard smaller?

So many questions...

[Tybee]

When we built a fence in town, we had to file survey with permit, and we had to do it on our property, so that decision might be made for you.