Worrying about House/Area - Made a Mistake?

KatieDee

Hello everybody,

We bought our new home in March and so far, have not experienced any major problems. The road we live in is quite nice (large houses) but just a mile or so down the road is a fairly run down area.

I just spotted a man, shirtless, walking down my street with a crowbar in his hand, screaming absolute nonsense. He either has severe mental health issues or is off his face on some kind of drug. Somebody has called the police and they're currently standing with him, I assume trying to talk him down and find out what's going on.

Seeing this man has really worried me...there are a couple of other things that I have underlying anxieties about, such as the flats next door which are currently home to lovely, older tenants. Although not a concern now, I'm worried about what will happen when new tenants come in. This is where the man was hanging around and it made me think this might be the kind of tenants they're letting in.

I think I am worrying over nothing...but my anxiety about this is absolutely through the roof and I'm going between being "okay" and getting quite upset about it. I adore the house, our street is lovely but I don't want to be looking over my shoulder the entire time or spending my time worrying about what might happen.

We've only been in for a few months and would probably lose some money for moving so early but I'm starting to regret this purchase a little bit. Not the house because it's beautiful, but the wider area in general. It's so downtrodden and depressing. We spent a lot of time in the area before buying, visited the house day and night and didn't really see anything then.

Has anybody been in a similar situation? This is really just a bit of a glorified rant but I've received a lot of support from this forum and I would really like some opinions on this.

mountainofdebt

tbh when buying a house the only way you can go some way to guaranteeing you get nice neighbours is to buy all the houses in your street and rent them out; or alternatively live somewhere like the Highlands where the nearest neighbour is miles away.

As for the man who was shirtless he could very well be a stockbroker or a doctor!

The only thing I would suggest is to make sure your house is secure....i you feel uneasy invest in a decent alarm system that you can use when you're in the property at night

Person_one

Have a look at this, a house worth nearly a million in a well to do area, and it was being used as a huge cannabis farm!

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/worsley-cannabis-farm-huge-cannabis-7405538

There's absolutely no way to guarantee you'll always have lovely neighbours, so try to look at the positives that somebody was on the ball enough to get the police out quickly to talk to the shirtless man, and that its a rarity, there are places where it wouldn't be!

As for the flats, most people who rent are perfectly lovely, well behaved ordinary people. There's no reason to worry about something that isn't even happening yet!

KatieDee

mountainofdebt wrote: »

tbh when buying a house the only way you can go some way to guaranteeing you get nice neighbours is to buy all the houses in your street and rent them out; or alternatively live somewhere like the Highlands where the nearest neighbour is miles away.

As for the man who was shirtless he could very well be a stockbroker or a doctor!

The only thing I would suggest is to make sure your house is secure....i you feel uneasy invest in a decent alarm system that you can use when you're in the property at night

Thank you for your reply. Although I do appreciate the point you're making, I would bet my entire house and savings that this man was not a doctor :rotfl:

Upping security is definitely a future project for me but to be honest, I've spoken to the neighbours (one of which has been here all her life) and she has never had any problems, even leaving her front door unlocked! I don't feel as though it's an immediately threatening area, I think this one incident has just put me on edge.

Sometimes I see people walking past from up the road, glaring into my windows and it makes me feel uncomfortable. I don't want to seem snobbish and I'm failing to find the words to explain exactly what I mean...which probably means I am a bit snobbish after all?

As I said, the house is beautiful, I just feel as though it's overshadowed a bit by the area surrounding it. I'd come to terms with it (as you rightfully said, you have no way of knowing how an area can turn in the future!) but this incident seems to have knocked me back down and now I'm panicking again.

Person_one wrote: »

Have a look at this, a house worth nearly a million in a well to do area, and it was being used as a huge cannabis farm!

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/worsley-cannabis-farm-huge-cannabis-7405538

There's absolutely no way to guarantee you'll always have lovely neighbours, so try to look at the positives that somebody was on the ball enough to get the police out quickly to talk to the shirtless man, and that its a rarity, there are places where it wouldn't be!

As for the flats, most people who rent are perfectly lovely, well behaved ordinary people. There's no reason to worry about something that isn't even happening yet!

Again, thank you. I can see that the flats are very well looked after and they are very, very highly sought after because of their area (overlooking a beautiful, well-kept park) but I've seen how fast council flats can go downhill once the wrong people start coming in. Although as it has been mentioned, you can't control who your neighbours are! We're far enough for it to not be a problem, I suppose.

Yes, the police came very quickly and were very good with the man...they calmed him down and seemed to get him to go home (which was actually down the road).

Just discussing it and hearing the opinions of others has made me feel a little bit better!

Curlywurli

The day we moved into our first house there was very loud music- Elvis, booming out around the street until late in the night. We wondered what we had let ourselves in for, but never heard music that loud again and lived there for seven years. In the house we're currently in, we've had a man around here just like that but sadly he passed away- think he was quite young. As people say though, you can't always tell and sometimes it's the nicer looking people that you should be worried about.

ska_lover

You say you spent some time in the area before purchasing but really seems like you didn't do your homework properly or put that much thought into it all as these issues were there before you moved in? The run down area a mile away and flats next door..were there before you moved in

You come across as though you are allergic to being happy?

You witnessed a one off crazy guy - likely with mental health issues.

creativemieu

When I first moved into the house (where I have now lived for over 20 years) the immediate neighbour turned out to be a person with severe mental health problems and deemed by a local doctor (that I happened to know slightly) as dangerous! There was I, a single mum with a little 7 year old son and an au pair. I felt vulnerable but we survived and have been mostly very happy living here. The man in question eventually met a sad end. The reason I tell this story is this.... it is absolutely no use worrying about what might happen and even when something problematic does happen it is possible to get through it - life is full of risk and in this country fortunately the risks are relatively small. So stop worrying and enjoy your home.

barbiedoll

Wasn't it Madonna who moaned about living in London with a comment along the lines of "You're never more than 500 yards from a council estate"?

OP, just because you live in a nice house in a lovely road, doesn't mean that you can stop the undesirables from walking down it! Many lovely homes are situated within spitting distance of more run-down areas, it's one of the downsides of living on a crowded island. I once visited a warehouse conversion flat, one in the same block was for sale at the time for £1.5 million :eek: The whole complex was literally across the road from four of the grottiest council high-rise blocks in the entire area.

Don't let this one incident spoil life in your lovely new home. I'm guessing that maybe you're an anxious person at the best of times? You sound as though you are actively looking for something to worry about, that maybe life is a little too good and you're certain that it won't last? Don't fret about things that you can't do anything about. You can't choose your neighbours but you currently have lovely ones, don't worry about who may move in next, it hasn't happened yet! (I know how you feel there, my neighbours are lovely but one of them is thinking about moving and the other has made noises for years about "downsizing" )

You'll soon forget about the angry man with the crowbar, he was probably just having a bad day. Even the poshest parts of the country have their fair share of nutters and crime, short of shutting yourself behind gates, alarms and rottweilers, what can you do?

Up your security (which you should do anyway) and forget about it. Life is too short to spend worrying all day!

System

Can you pinpoint what it is you are nervous about? Is it your personal safety or is it the thought of your house losing value should the place you live in degenerate into a 'rough area'?

Hermia

I think you need to take a deep breath and not worry about things unless they actually happen! I live in the country and there are areas around here that are picture postcard utopias, but they still have dodgy people and the odd crime. In a way they can be worse because it's much harder to deal with an unsociable neighbour who is a former judge/vicar/chairman than a tenant who can be evicted!

I have lived in 'nice' areas and nasty ones and have had problems in both.

BTW do you think you are reading to much into the actions of people who worry you? For example, what do you mean by "glaring into my windows"? If a nicely dressed person did exactly the same thing would you be noticing so much? I think a lot of people stare at houses as they pass just because they are curious or bored. I know I love having a look at houses in the rich part of town because I enjoy looking at their decor!

KatieDee

barbiedoll wrote: »

Don't let this one incident spoil life in your lovely new home. I'm guessing that maybe you're an anxious person at the best of times? You sound as though you are actively looking for something to worry about, that maybe life is a little too good and you're certain that it won't last? Don't fret about things that you can't do anything about. You can't choose your neighbours but you currently have lovely ones, don't worry about who may move in next, it hasn't happened yet! (I know how you feel there, my neighbours are lovely but one of them is thinking about moving and the other has made noises for years about "downsizing" )

You'll soon forget about the angry man with the crowbar, he was probably just having a bad day. Even the poshest parts of the country have their fair share of nutters and crime, short of shutting yourself behind gates, alarms and rottweilers, what can you do?

Up your security (which you should do anyway) and forget about it. Life is too short to spend worrying all day!

Thank you SO much. You knocked the nail on the head! I am a worrier, as you've all noticed. I really do appreciate your kind words and knew, even when it was happening, that it was likely to be an isolated incident.

This is the first house I have ever bought, so I suppose part of me is frightened of the commitment and the fact that if anything went wrong, we couldn't just up and go, we'd have to sell, which is a horribly long process! Perhaps I'm finding things to worry about, which is precisely what ska lover said (albeit, in a better way!).

avogadro wrote: »

Can you pinpoint what it is you are nervous about? Is it your personal safety or is it the thought of your house losing value should the place you live in degenerate into a 'rough area'?

I'm not sure...it's not the money side of things. It's the fear that something terrible will happen and I'll be stuck here. I work in housing myself and literally see the worst of the worst and how quickly areas can go downhill, so I suppose I'm just projecting slightly...worrying before I really need to. Stupid, I know.

Hermia wrote: »

I think you need to take a deep breath and not worry about things unless they actually happen! I live in the country and there are areas around here that are picture postcard utopias, but they still have dodgy people and the odd crime. In a way they can be worse because it's much harder to deal with an unsociable neighbour who is a former judge/vicar/chairman than a tenant who can be evicted!

I have lived in 'nice' areas and nasty ones and have had problems in both.

BTW do you think you are reading to much into the actions of people who worry you? For example, what do you mean by "glaring into my windows"? If a nicely dressed person did exactly the same thing would you be noticing so much? I think a lot of people stare at houses as they pass just because they are curious or bored. I know I love having a look at houses in the rich part of town because I enjoy looking at their decor!

You know what...you make a good point! I am a nosy parker and love looking in peoples windows. Perhaps they think the same of me when I walk past! I don't mean anything by it, I just love getting ideas from the decor.

You're all right, I am being silly and worrying over nothing. This is why I come here...you set me right when I'm going a bit wobbly!