"A good neighbour increases the value of your property"- Czech proverb

Neighbours can assist in raising the value of home sale prices in residential areas. 

Given that they generally tend to influence friends and relatives to live closer to them, they are effectively 'ambassadors' for the suburbs and precincts in which they reside. 

That is why a good, full-service, real estate agent will take the extra time to ensure that the neighbourhood is fully aware of a new property coming on the market. 

A carefully planned and implemented awareness campaign of this nature could alert up to 300 or 400 existing homeowners to an upcoming sale of a property in their suburb.

Conversely, buyers should research areas they are considering by revealing their buying intentions to their friends and relatives who might live in the neighborhood. They would get the inside story on the lifestyle offered by those neighborhoods they are considering. 

Successful sale factor

This can be major factor in the successful sale of a home. And it falls into the basket of real estate agent activities that are not easily replaced by the recently emerged online selling solutions.  

Neighbours who are aware of - and, better still, have themselves visited a show day of the property for sale, will inevitably spread the word... not least on the neighbourhood dinner party, braai or community grapevine. 

Chances are they will also inform family members and friends in the hope of persuading them to move closer to them.

They are effectively the stakeholders of the area, and their involvement, whether active or passive, can certainly contribute to the achievement of better home values within it. Not least so when the time comes to market their own properties.

This is something about which people tend to be short-sighted. Neighbours, logically, are interested that houses for sale achieve maximum value as this impacts on the value of their own properties.

Like-minded buyers

On the face of it, crime and security issues have seemingly made South Africans less neighbourly than we should be. In fact, today's neighbours are more willing than people realise to have like-minded home buyers moving into their neighbourhood.

That is why, at Ennik Estates, we often invite neighbours to show days.

The bottom line is that a full-service estate agency, paying attention to every detail of the home buy/sell process - is best-placed to deliver a top result. This extra time and effort to market to the neighborhood is usually justified under a sole mandate