Renters? Ugh

I have good news and bad news.

Good news: Our neighbors are moving. These are the people who have three generations plus extended family living in a 3 bedroom house and approximately 6 cars. One of these cars used to be parked in front of our house when we moved in (and the owner seemed very upset when I told him he couldn't keep parking it there because I'd like my own guests to be able to park in front of my house), and another was hit by our moving truck (the driver ended up getting arrested for oustanding warrants, long story. I know I was supposed to post about it but didn't get around to it. Sorry). This makes me happy because all those cars will finally be gone. Yay.

Bad news: There's a big "For Lease" sign in front of their house. This means they're not selling it, but renting it. Oh goody.

I don't want to paint all renters in a bad light, Sean and I had rented from the time we were married until we bought this house. However, we were of the rare breed of good renters. We took care of our homes, were polite to our neighbors, and always left our apartments in better condition than we found it (I even repaired nail holes in the walls left by previous renters). Not so with most renters. If our apartment neighbors were any indication, renters tend to not care about the building they live in. They tend to throw loud obnoxious parties because they can just rent somewhere else if they get kicked out. They have no investment in where they live.

I'm not worried about the property value, we bought this house for way less than what it is worth, have put in new floors, new appliances, done cosmetic repairs, and could sell it for more than the purchase price even if our neighbors were running a crack house. Well, maybe. No matter, I don't plan on selling it anyway.

What I'm worried about is what kind of people this is going to attract? Are there going to be even MORE cars parked out front? Will they have loud obnoxious parties? Are they going to be neglectful and burn the place down?

Maybe we'll get lucky and they're doing a "lease-to-own". Better that than letting it sit vacant for a year.