I have a neighbor at my one property who has taken to texting me any time he doesn’t like something at the house. He texted me that my fence was rotting and that he could give me the name of his fence guy to put up a nice white vinyl fence. That the tenants were parked in the street making it hard for “all the neighbors” to get in the driveways. That the tenants kid was throwing cigarette butts on his lawn. Just to let me know that the tenants left a big rut in my lawn (with photo) Today, he sent an impassioned text that he can’t believe they are cutting the oil tank at the property because he has a “seriously sick wife and father who were woken out of a sound sleep”. It’s almost 10:00 AM!

I’m raging right now so I’m not going to respond to him until Monday morning. But, seriously???

Regardless of you being a Realtor and someone being a friend of your parents, I would ignore him.

I would only get involved in serious issues that concerned me.

I would respond with a text "Thank you."

That's my new thing. I never say "I'm sorry" anymore. At least not for things that really do not require it. For intance in our biz if someone doesn't meet the criteria, I don't apologize to them for it, as in, "I'm sorry but your income does not meet our minimum requirements." I say, "Thank you for your interest but ... etc." Every time I want to write "I'm sorry" I stop and rewrite it somehow to say "Thank you!" instead.

This may be someone that feels it is his duty to report anything and everything that may affect your property and he may think he is doing you a service. I would just thank him for the information.Tell him to report it to the police or just ignore it.

I wouldn't block the number, because if the house is on fire, you want a call.

"because if the house is on fire, you want a call."

I don't. I can't put out of a fire. Call the the Fire Dept, not me! ;-)

If the house is on fire, gets knocked over by a tornado, or has any other kind of disaster....your TENANT will notify you. Or the sheriff/police/fire dept will.

Block his number and move on. There is no law yet mandating that you have to return calls/texts/emails or instant messages. It works with pesky applicants too!

Personally, I love having concerned neighbors. They are paying attention to your property. They are your eyes and ears. I don't discourage that behavior.

They are not phoning you with these trivial matters, simply texting. A qucik glance at a text can let you know whether it is important or should be ignored.

Interesting, this is why many people dislike landlords. The neighbor LIVES there, he has an investment in his home. Your property it sounds like has maintenance issues. Sounds like a narrow street and your tenants are blocking it. My old house our street was only 1 1/2 lanes wide, while technically legal to park, nobody did.

This is why I moved to an HOA community.

Live - it doesn’t have maintenance issues, although if you didn’t see the house, you wouldn’t know by his complaints. He wants me to put in a vinyl fence to match his, at my expense. There is nothing wrong with the fence that replacing a few slats won’t fix (I had my husband look at it this morning).

The oil tank, I was removing. Because i just spent $10,000 replacing the HVAC system. and i didn’t like it sitting on the side of the yard unused and knew it would start to deteriorate. I’m putting a new roof and replacing several windows this Wed. I do a major yard cleanup every turnover, etc.

I tried to reason with him when he first started texting me. I told him that I do everything I can *legally* to put good tenants in there. I do criminal background checks and I don’t let anything slide, credit checks, don’t allow certain breeds of dogs, etc. the house looks 1000% better then when I bought it. He’s just a nudge, who doesn’t like having a “rental” next to him and has some weird ownership feelings about the house,

Do you believe after sending me that message complaining about the noise, that he texted me a picture of the white fence that matches his and said he would pay for 3 panels, but I would have to pay for 5 panels and installation “just an idea.”

Dude. No.

I'd tell him if he wants to put up a vinyl fence he's welcome to just put it in front of yours. This way you have yours to maintain and he has the one he wants to look at and can maintain because changing your fence is not something you're interested in doing at this time (remember he's enjoying the benefit of your fence).

Thank him for taking his time to alert you but if there are any problems, you think that you are able to handle them.

So I’ve had a glass of wine and my husband and I are having the best time composing passive/aggressive response texts (that I’m not sending)

“Thanks for letting me know about the fence. Since you say it’s in such terrible shape, we’re just gonna rip it down. Appreciate the heads up!”

“Thanks for the offer on the fence. Our budget is $150 for repairs. Happy to cut a check to your fence guy if you want to replace it altogether!”

Our other idea is to gather up everyone in our family and have like 10 people walk through, pretend we are going over the lease and having them get in a loud fight with one another on the front yard.

Or, have my husband (6’3” and BIG) knock on the door and say “I hear you have a problem.”

Thanks for all the advice. It’s nice to hear from cooler heads when I’m seeing red. At least I’ve learned (at almost 50) to let things sit before responding.

I really am amazed that people just shoot rude things off in the heat of the moment. It sucks being professional all the time. My credo is though, “he who loses their temper first, loses everything.” I

And then send a note that says "Here's a sales agreement for the property, since you care more about it than I do."

I had a neighbor that I felt was in my 'bidness more than necessary. I ended up telling him, that I would take care of my side of the street and he can take care of his. Yeh, my ire was raised. He did call me a couple of weeks ago and informed me a door was hanging open on a vacant apartment. (it had went to voicemail). i called the local police to check it and close it up. I wish he had done the same.

GOOGLE PHONE SOLVES THE PROBLEM.

I would thank him as WMH recommends, however it would take me many many days to respond. I want to send the message that texting me is NOT immediate access to me or a response.

Have you considered asking him if he’d like to purchase the home?