Did you tell your neighbors you were letting your house go?

[AZChick]

Just wondering...what do you say to your neighbors who are sticking it out? It seems awful to me to suddenly be moving out without a thought...but at the same time feel anxious about telling anyone our situation.....

[walkwithme]

I just told my neighbor today but the neighbor I told isn't in this situation. I figure the neighbors will see a for sale sign soon enough so they might as well know. But I'm sure they were half way expecting me to leave because the neighbors know when I bought.....pretty much at the peak.

For me I don't have much guilt about the situation with the house. I paid too much. But at the same time I had no idea that the banks were writing so many bad loans to people who couldn't pay and thereby artificially inflating the price of houses by 200K+ in my area. It's a relief to fess up and start to get it overwith.

[cactus77727]

I'm not saying anything to neighbors until I have to. I imagine I'll get questions once they see me moving out. I don't know my neighbors that well anyway.

[oregonheaven]

Neighbors? What neighbors are you referring to? Would those be the empty houses all around me from people who have been foreclosed on, or builders who pulled up stakes and ran for the hills? The only thing I hear in my neighborhood these days is the echo of my own voice. Will the last person left please turn off the lights? Thank you.

[cactus77727]

LOL oregonheaven! And too true for some areas. Which begs the question: when we get evicted, should we just move into one of the nearby vacant homes? Maybe we need a new forum added for 'walkers and squatters'!

[oregonheaven]

I think you might be on to something there Cactus. I am just trying to keep a good sense of humor these days! I have great hopes for 2009! Happy New Year!

[turksteelman]

Neighbors?? After 5 years in my last house, why would we talk now. Arizona is the no neighbor state. Only place you can live where you don't even know what your neighbor looks like. Not saying thats necessarily a bad thing either!

[JulesK]

As a neighbor who lost both neighbors in the last year, I would suggest having the chat. It doesn't have to be detailed or lengthy, just simply "It's the darn housing market." Everyone will understand.
One neighbor told us as they were experiencing the foreclosure and so we were able to spend more time together and have a good-bye dinner. The other neighbor, whom we loved and saw their kids grow up, moved in the middle of the night before Thanksgiving. It was so sad. JMHO.

[KT in CA]

That is sad. We haven't decided when to tell our neighbors. On one side we have a neighbor who we used to be really close with and our kids are friends. We will tell her but we just are not sure when. We have a couple of fence panel sections that need to be replaced and I told my husband we need to fix those before we leave. I don't want to leave her with a ratty fence and no idea when a neighbor will be around to help pay for a new fence. On the other side, we know them but they aren't necessarily our friends. Good neighbors either way on both sides of us.

Another neighbor started moving their things. We thought they were just cleaning. Then my husband went and talked with them and found out what was going on. He gave us some advise on what we should do as he was in pretty much the same boat. Their house foreclosed in early December. They just moved their travel trailer out of their driveway yesterday.

Sad sad sad.

[JulesK]

KT, I think I read somewhere that you're in Vacaville. Well, we're nearly neighbors, I'm in Elk Grove. My mother-in-law lives in Vacaville and hubby grew up there.

It's so kind of you to want to replace those panels in the fence, especially when you have so much else on your mind. We also have a few panels that need to be replaced but the neighbors are now gone, so my husband and I were thinking of calling the realtor. We thought that maybe they would be interested in having a nice new fence to help sell the property, but we'll see.

We also thought that the neighbor who left in the middle of the night was just cleaning out for the holidays and was having friends over, more than usual. But now we know.

[KT in CA]

Hi Jules,

Yes we are in Vacaville. Seems a lot of us are neighbors along I-80. I love the Elk Grove area.

I don't think it's right to leave her with a damaged fence. it's bad enough we will be leaving. We will probably move during the week during the day when not so many people are around.

[2keAZ]

Most of our neighbors her in AZ are frinds and we have pretty much told them our intent to vacate so they know. Our friends have been understanding