With an inop car and a middle class neighborhood, it's probably best to push your scrap iron inside and ride out the time til house sells...but the sane approach isn't necessarily first choice of rodders... No reason why the neighborhood should continue to look middleclass while his house is on the market, is there?? Let your lawn go to hell, mow it the Monday after his open house to avoid actual legal pressure. There's no law against pushing trailer and merc half way out and waxing the rust while playing Mexican music, is there?? A few decals supporting Central American soccer teams, and flags no one can quite identify should be on your running car. Park it in street with hood up, of course. No need to actually work on it. Have an irregular piece of dirty black cloth protruding on the ground beneath the fender--it will look like you change your oil right onto the pavement, but can be cleaned up instantly... Move your barbecue to front yard. Decorate the set with your ugliest and least formal friends. Greet the house lookers walking past pleasantly...in Spanish...holding a beer.Dress appropriately for summer on the lawn--just follow the scuzziest person you see at K-Mart and buy what he buys. Maybe a Britny Spear T-shirt in flourescent slime. Mechanic's red rag protruding from pocket... Add a few similar items to this list and you should be able to knock 20 thou off his house, though at the unfortunate cost of slowing its sale...
The horror. Truth is as a neighbor he should have just been able to come over and said, "Hey, I'm trying to sell my house. Mind helping me out by keeping your junk inside for a while?" I have my hot rod and various projects in the works and I wouldn't want to see a tarped car setting in a neighbor's driveway all summer. That sucks. Somehow I manage to keep my stuff - and there is a lot of it - all inside a 13'x18' single car garage. When I'm finished working it all goes back in. I shut the door and you'd never know how I spend my spare time. I like it that way. But then again I think I'm probably a Yuppie with my big expensive pure bred dog and enough money (right) to have a "play car". Hope your stuff gets worked out.
im sooo glad i live in the country!! im with vance...laws are laws..even if they are very stupid laws!!!but i can understand there side...if it where my house,,well shit..i wouldnt be movin..sounds like a killer friggin street to live on to me!!!but thats just me.. if all else fails, put one of those sex offender signs in your yard ...then when the house drops to 5 grand obo, buy it and sell it to a HAMBER!! you perv....
After I started the extreme home makeover, broke ass edition on my house 2 months ago, the neighbors actually followed suit and cleaned up their shit. that lasted all of 3 weeks, now they're lazy again. during the open house, give 'em a dry dock, or an upper decker. but cleaning up your stuff long enough to be rid of people you don't like seems like a fair trade. you don't want them there any more than they want to be. hopefully you can train the new ones to be better.
shoot, I'll solve everything and go buy that house! Damn, $149 is a SMOKING deal (i.e. NONexistent around here), median price is $400,000....... Funny story about asshat yuppy neighbors- my parents' neighborhood flooded around new year's, the guys down the street from them didn't think it would flood though their house has flooded 3 times before they moved in. My parents warned them that morning, all they said was, "Oh.... so YOU'RE the owners with all those TRUCKS. So which truck do you drive?" Well, luckily my parents had all those trucks to move with, and made it out towing cars and trailers left and right (and luckily waters didn't reach them). That house wasn't so lucky and lost everything.
If I was looking at a house and this was going on, I'd buy it right then. Perhaps the city inspectors came by because the other house is for sale and noticed that you are out of code. Around here, I know they come by a couple of months after you move in. I got a nice letter telling me to put house address numbers up. "NOW!" Why weren't they there when the other people moved out? Did they take them with them?
Check with the Realtor and see when they plan to have the "Open House" showing, this way you know what date to advertize your "Yard Sale" could be a win win for both of you, think of the traffic! Get the kids a lemonaid stand.
"Get the kids a lemonaid stand" No, No! Think third world illegal alien ragamuffins! Stand should offer Something involving strange, gnarly fruits from the freaky health food store and roasted iguanas on sticks! The sign should involve Olmec pictograms!
Glad to know there are sick people out there like me!! You could also drop a growler in a plastic cup and stick it somewhere inconspicuous...doesn't take long for the poopourri to take effect. Truthfully, though, it does make sense to deal with the BS to get 'em outta there. Weak that they didn't come to you directly...seems like more and more people are getting that way. Bryan
Cosmo, that's what I'm talking about in my first post. Do what you can to help sell it and get that 'kind' out of the neighborhood. I hate to say it, but Glenn's house is dropping in value just as quick according to that pic. Vance
Hmmm...I'm torn on this. I understand the anger with the asshat's inability to be man enough to come over and explain the situation in person. Doing so would probably have been no problem and everything would have been fine. But, this isn't the case, so now anger is saying 'Hey - let's screw up his plan to sell his house' I'd think you'd want him to move. First, to get rid of an asshat, and secondly, to potentially get someone cool in there. 'Scaring' away potential buyers by looking like the local H.A. meth lab is not going to achieve anything, except maybe keeping asshat right where he is for longer. I say do what you have to do to get rid of him, and make nice with the new folks. Slowing down the process doesn't seem like a good option. More asshat = more problems. ...or, do what I did and move out to the country where you can do whatever you want. Good Luck with it man...I know neighborhood issues can really suck. ~Scotch~
For real, plus that Zillow tool is massively wrong, generally speaking. If not, I'm the next Donald Trump as soon as someone gives me $140k for the house I paid $65k for 7 months ago. I'm actually interested in where Zillow got that info, since the Clermont County Auditor lists it as being work $129k for tax purposes...
Zillow is supposedly updated daily with information from sales throughout neighborhoods, regional house sales strength, median and average sales prices over several years, etc. So, based on a 25% drop in home sales in Nevada, values have been going down across the board from what I've seen- My parents has gone down $100,000 in a month, so it is pretty timely in its updates. It also reflects home sales from like a week or two ago, one of the flood houses was listed at $100,000 OVER what it actually sold for and prices went down after that. Then there's some asshat whos house is listed up the street for $200,000 More than it's Zillow value! $529,000, come on
I got a very threating letter from the city last year after some neighbor complained about the uninspected car on my property. Ok, actually 3 uninspected cars. It said I had 10 days, then it'd be $1,000 per day per vehicle fine. I called the City inspector and she said 'Oh, I know where you live. My boyfriend LOVES your cars. They're really cool.' If that was supposed to make me somehow feel better, it didn't work. But she was alright about giving me some extra time at least. Got 2 inspected and hid the other. Nice that our city host NSRA nats, a bike night, and tons of other revenue generating things involving cars and bikes, but God forbid you should have a project car on your own property that's not finished. Where do they think finished cars come from? Good luck with your legal woes and understand the venting. Rob
...THAT was just one of the reasons I left So Cal for the freedom of the country...got a small ranch in oregon and I can put any damn thing I want in my drive way or yard and no one sez SQUAT!!...in the city THEY run your life..in the country..YOU run your life!!!...(how's that for a rant)...and I have all this room....
Thanks for the good words and ideas, guys. REVENGE WILL HAPPEN once they have moved. Public records will tell me where they go. Till then it's clean-up and get the township off my ass. No rotisserie for me for a while looks like. Smooth, I'll be choppong them racks up for storage if you want to drop by. Otherwise the projects are all on hold. Fuck. Thanks again for the words guys. You saved me from punching his lights out. I'm real short on bail money ATM. Glenn
Why revenge? Are you POSITIVE this guy is the reason you got cited? If no, think that over. Friendly advice... Here's a thought from a real estate appraiser - do what you can to HELP this guy get as much for his house as possible. Here's why. Housing values are the result of sales and pretty much that alone. The more the neighbors houses sell for, the more your house value increases by association. Help them get the price they want and you'll end up benefiting too. Revenge is best left to those who have nothing better to do. I'm sure you have many better things to do.
Yea . . . sucks to be on either side of the fence. I've been the "old grinch" who was one of many parents that were going to choke the living daylights out of the little "my car will lay rubber if revved to 7K" twerps using the street as a race area. When I first moved into my house, the neighbor kid and his dad were out testing the stereo in his truck -- I worked from home at the time and got big earfulls of bass. I was once a kid too and enjoyed that, but there was a time and place for everything. I politely asked them to stop it. Later I printed off specs/diagrams for speaker boxes and took those over to them. They've been cool ever since (although the kid is no longer a kid). I'm more than happy to bend a little if someone approaches me first, but give me the opportunity to make good first. I've had so many cars in my driveway before, it looked like a used car lot. Thankfully my neighbors have always been very cool . . . well, aside from the one behind me who built a 8 foot privacy fence . . . . I guess so he could powerwash his deck for days on end in peace. LOL
Glenn, if you want some help moving some shit around, let me know. I could come down this Saturday to help out. Vance
dabirdguy, Went through the same problem with my yuppies neighbors. The yuppie lady doesn't like grinders, hammering out dents, revving an engine and dislikes it when I play Dowop music or Rockabilly. I only worked on by car from 9 to 6 with no late hours in the drive way. Still, they look at me like I was trailer trash. They have giving up on me and still live next door. Be sure to leave your Merc in the drive way while their selling, you wouldn't want another set of yuppies moving in on you. Here's hoping they move far, far away. Most non-car people suck................ Cruiser
By the looks of that house (inside and out) they sure look like some 'low-rent' yuppies. What do they drive? His and hers Hundais? Why not you move and find a better class of yuppie to hate. -stick
Thanks Bro, I appreciate the offer. I have to work all weekend. We are doing a major project and I need to be there all day Saturday and mid-day Sunday. I can get it done, no worries. The Problem is once all that is back INSIDE the can, there will be no room to work, so I may have to sell off one of the projects. I Might move the 36 into the other garage. Still debating that. Be well all. Glenn
The Jalopy Journal
