Everyone wants to live in a “nice” neighborhood. But what makes a nice neighborhood a nice neighborhood? Well, the answer is very simple. It is a community where all the residents have pride in their properties and maintain them. Nice neighborhoods do not have to have big or fancy homes. The homes just need to be maintained well. The more manicured the home and the landscaping, the better curb appeal the home will have; and the more homes that have great curb appeal the more desirable the neighborhood.
Even in the nicest communities, there is always a house or two that is not maintained. In this case, it is often an owner who is elderly and is not physically or financially able to keep up with the property. In some cases there are people who simply do not care and have no interest in making their home look nice. We have all seen the house with the car parked in the front yard, peeling paint on the home and a dead lawn with plants gasping for water. But this is not the majority of homes. Most homeowners want and do keep up their properties. It is part of the fun of having a home and the pride of ownership.
As a general rule, homeowners are more likely to maintain their property well, more so than a renter. In areas where there is a high rental population, it is more likely to be not as nice. In areas where there is a high percentage of homeowners, it is much more likely for all the homes and yards to be beautifully maintained, which in turn, makes the neighborhood nice.
People want to live in nice areas. So if you are a landlord wanting to rent a property, it will be easier to rent the property if it is in a good neighborhood. The same holds true when selling a property. A good example of this situation is well illustrated by a recent listing I had.
This listing was a newly – and nicely – remodeled single detached home in a nice area. The house to the immediate west was also a very beautiful home with gorgeous landscaping, as were most of the homes in the area. However, on the immediate east side of my listing was a property that had been completely let go. The front yard was a dirt patch with a few weeds growing in the walkway and driveway cracks. The owners of this property used the front porch and part of the front yard for storage and had dozens of boxes stacked on top of each other and a lot of other stuff in the yard. When we peeked over the fence into this neighbor’s backyard, it was literally like a junk yard or a dump with an unbelievable amount of garbage piled everywhere. This property made Sanford and Son’s house and yard look like a home in Beverly Hills. Needless to say, this unkempt house was a significant deterrent to selling my beautifully remodeled home. Everyone who saw my listing would comment negatively on the house next door and ask why it was so awful and “what is the problem”. I ultimately was able to successfully sell my listing, but it did take longer due to the horrible house next door, which by the way was given to the owner by her mother.
Although nicely maintained properties are probably the single most significant factor that makes a neighborhood nice, there are other contributing factors.
Most people like to live in a quiet setting. So noise can be a contributing and significant factor in lessoning the desirability of a neighborhood. If an area is under a flight pattern, by a railroad line or located next to a freeway, it can make the area much less desirable. For example, Point Loma is one of the nicest communities in San Diego County and a section of it is located directly under our airport’s flight pattern. Although the homes are very beautiful and nicely maintained, the noise factor is significant and makes that immediate area of Point Loma much less desirable.
Simply put, a nice neighborhood is created by residents who have pride in their properties and maintain them beautifully. Wherever you live, enjoy your home and have pride in it. The result will be the creation of, the move toward or the continuation of a “nice neighborhood for you, your neighbors and your San Diego.
Trent St. Louis is a licensed Real Estate Agent and a member of the National, California and San Diego Association of Realtors. You can reach Trent at trent@tns.net or at his office in Hillcrest, The Metropolitan Group. (CA DRE#01273643).
