As I mentioned last week, one of our rental homes was empty for a few weeks this summer when our tenants moved out without notice and left the place a mess. So last week Mr. CMF and I got to experience the deep joy that can only come from getting to clean up a filthy mess left by someone else. It was great.
Note: This post may contain affiliate links.
I also mentioned in that post that our tenants left multiple items behind for us to deal with: a mattress box spring that was not going to come out of the basement in one piece, a broken car jack in the front yard (those things are HEAVY!!), three huge old speakers, a crappy TV stand, an ugly patio umbrella, and the inexplicable, a giant roll of soggy carpet padding in the backyard.
There was no carpet put in the home during the three years they lived there. One of the tenants was a bartender and the other was an electrician. Why in the world they came to possess a giant roll of carpet padding is beyond me.
Crap to Give Away
Anyway, so one of the first things that we had to do while cleaning up the property was haul all the crap away. We don’t own a pickup truck, so we called up a rental agency to see about renting a truck. We were able to arrange to rent a truck for a half day for $19.95. All we needed was a way to haul a bunch of crap to the dump.
We managed to get the job done in three hours. Unfortunately the three hours included time spent waiting for a tow truck, since one of the first things Mr. CMF did was get the truck stuck on an embankment. Here’s a tip: don’t go for shortcuts when using a rented truck. For a brief period of time that morning I wanted to kill him. Tow truck showed up quickly though, and $100 later we were back in business (the hubs DID have the decency to haggle with the tow truck driver, who initially wanted to charge $150 for the job).
The Twist!
Approximately two hours after we returned from the dump/rented truck/tow truck fiasco, we were in the house cleaning when we heard a knock at the front door. I opened it to find a man who introduced himself as the next door neighbor. He said it had been windy a day or two before and his patio umbrella had disappeared. Had we by any chance seen it?
He described the umbrella he was looking for, and our hearts sank as we recognized the description. Yep, it was the umbrella we had hauled to the dump just a couple hours earlier.
I couldn’t lie to him. So I told him that we had hauled his umbrella to the dump thinking it was left behind by our tenants. In retrospect, the umbrella, although ugly, had seemed a little bit nicer than everything else that had been left behind, but in the wake of the tow truck frustration we had really not stopped to give it a second thought. We just tossed the umbrella into the rented truck along with everything else that was going to find its final resting place at the dump.
What to Do?
What I did next was something Mr. CMF and I would later debate. I asked the man how much his umbrella had cost. He said he had bought it two and a half years ago at a local warehouse club for $60. I asked him if it would be ok if I gave him $40 to compensate him for his umbrella, and he agreed that would be ok. I took $40 out of my purse and gave it to him.
Mr. CMF later told me that he would not have given the man anything. And I know I didn’t HAVE to compensate the man for his umbrella. After all, we had arrived on a Friday night to find that umbrella in our backyard, apparently abandoned. It was still there Saturday morning when we were making our trip to the dump. Of course we thought our tenants had left it, as they had left so many other things.
The Value of Being Neighborly
But more importantly than the umbrella itself, I thought it was important to treat this man extra kindly because he lives next door to a house we own. Even though we are not there very often (this rental home is located approximately five hours away from where we currently live), I think that there is value in making friends with your neighbors.
Would he have been our enemy if I hadn’t given him $40? I doubt it. But now I hope he will think of us as the nice people who own the house next door, and I kind of like to think that what goes around comes around. I think if given the chance in the future to either help us out or not help us out, there may now be a better than average chance that he would choose to help us out. How much could that one day be worth? I have no idea. Maybe $40, maybe nothing. Or maybe a LOT.
My mother (who lives alone) and her next door neighbors watch each other’s dogs when they are out of town. Since my mother recently had surgery out of town and stayed with us for a while, that means that her neighbors were taking care of her dogs for about three weeks straight. Now that she is home her neighbors are still walking her dogs for her every day (she has big dogs, and she had shoulder surgery so cannot walk them herself). Her neighbors even went to her house twice a day when Mr. CMF and I were out of town on our rental house cleaning expedition, to do her physical therapy with her. A different neighbor is taking her to her physical therapy appointments 2-3 times per week.
My mother and her neighbors are such good friends to each other that one recent Christmas one of her neighbors got her an automatic garage door opener, and a different neighbor installed it. Not kidding!! In my mother’s case, I would say that the value of being neighborly is HUGE.
In my own life making friends with neighbors has been valuable as well. A few years ago the hubs and I were living in a suburb of a large city and I locked myself out of the house one day. Mr. CMF had just started an 8 hour shift at his work downtown, and he had the only other key. My options were A) wait outside for eight hours until he got home, or B) borrow a car from our neighbor. Even though we had just moved in, we had already met the neighbors and gotten to know them somewhat. They did not hesitate to loan me their car for an hour so I could go get hubby’s key.
I’m guessing many of you out there may have similar stories about times when making friends with your neighbors has been valuable to you. We can probably all agree that there is value there, although there really is no concrete way to put a price on that. Was I right to give the neighbor $40? I still don’t know, although I think my conscience rests easier knowing that we went the extra mile to make it right for that neighbor. And I think there’s value in that as well. 🙂
Would you have compensated the neighbor for his umbrella? Has anyone else out there ever had to call a tow truck for getting a rented truck stuck?
Suggested Reading: This incident with our tenants has gotten us reading more and more about tenant selection. If you are a landlord as well, or are interested in landlording, you may be interested in reading Every Landlord’s Guide to Finding Great Tenants
CMF’s favorite FREE money management tools!
Some of the best online tools out there for money management are at Personal Capital, and the awesome news is that they are all FREE! Cash flow tracker, 401(k) fee analyzer, investment checkup, net worth monitoring, and many more! I’m a net worth junkie, so the net worth monitor is my favorite. Check out my Personal Capital review here, or click here to check out all the awesome tools for yourself!
Photo: luissantos84/Depositphotos.com
I definitely would have paid him for the umbrella. I think you’re totally right–you really can’t put a price on how important it is to be neighborly and generally friendly. We are so lucky that our next door neighbors have become close friends of ours, We ask each other for favors (big and small) all the time. We have keys to each other’s houses and we both have dogs so we trade dog sitting all the time. It’s a great system!
That’s wonderful! I’d love to have a relationship like that with our neighbors now, since we have dogs. But we just haven’t found any neighbors that would be good ones to take care of our dogs since they are all either elderly/disabled, not dog people, or people we just don’t know that well. We may be moving soon, so hopefully in the next place 🙂
If this had happened to me, I think I would have offered the neighbour something also. As you said it goes beyond the lost and discarded umbrella. This neighbour could help you if he ever were to see something going on with your property and tenants that is truly out of order by being your eyes so to speak. It’s just good karma to be kind so I believe you did the right thing even though you were under no obligation to do so.
Thanks! I really do think that sometimes we can create our own “luck,” and this is one of those situations I think! I’d rather be too nice to a neighbor than not nice enough 🙂
I think it’s awesome that you compensated your neighbor. I’m not sure what I would do? I do know that it’s important to do with your money that which makes you feel good. And I think that’s exactly what you did. Way to go!
It’s one of those tough situations where there really is no right or wrong answer. And I agree, you have to do with your money whatever is going to help you sleep at night!
I wouldn’t have compensated your neighbor, but I see and understand why you did. Sometimes it is better to extend a hand to a neighbor in exchange for a potential friend/watch man. You just never know when you’re going to need his help again, and maybe now he will help you without asking questions.
I hope so. Who knows if and when we may need his help in the future, but I would hope that he would be kind to us and charitable with his time and resources in the future. I guess only time will tell!
I think you did the good thing. It always pay off to treat people well.
Thanks Simon! I completely agree 🙂
I would have compensated the umbrella. In your case, it’s obvious that you didn’t have to do that since you didn’t know that it was his anyway, but I think it’s just a nice neighborly gesture. Since you don’t visit your house that often, it’s even better, since he will remember you better and hopefully help you watch over your house.
Exactly! I think the fact that we aren’t there very often was even more reason to be extra kind to him. There is the potential that he could really help us out one day, and I think it will be a good idea to become as good of friends with him as possible.
That sucks for the neighbour with the bad timing. I wouldn’t have been quick enough on the draw if it had only blown out the night before. I think it was TOTALLY worth $40 to you. Absolutely. Also, your Mom’s neighbourhood sounds so, so awesome, like people used to talk about neighbours in books!
My mother really does live in an awesome neighborhood, but I also think it helps that she and all of her neighbors have all lived there for 20+ years! They have known each other forever and become really good friends over that period of time.
I think I would have done the same, as I would have felt bad. You’re right though, being nice to your neighbors is generally a good practice! They might have access to resources you can borrow, or they might be more willing to help out should you ever need it. My parents are good friends with both of their neighbors and they get goodies from them all the time, and they look out for each other.
We’ve already been thinking that we may need to borrow their lawn mower next weekend when we are out there again- so it may pay off sooner rather than later 🙂
I probably wouldn’t have given him anything, but it sounds like you did was seemed right at the time. I don’t think you can really go wrong by trying to be overly generous and fair.
I figure it’s better to err on that side than the other side with a neighbor, even if we’ve never met him before. Hopefully it will breed good karma 🙂
I agree with you, Dee! I absolutely would have paid him for his umbrella and the value of being neighborly is priceless. I’d bet your neighbor wouldn’t think twice about giving you a call if he noticed something off, or help you out in times of need. Plus, being honest is the right thing to do.
Thanks Addison (Kate!) I certainly hope he would give us a call in the future if there are any concerns about the house!
I think you made the right decision by giving him a bit of money for the umbrella. As you said, it could come back and be helpful for you in the future. Good reminder to be neighborly!
You never know when you may need your neighbors!
I think that was the right decision to make. Big picture wise $40 isn’t alot to make someone happy and who knows what benefit you will receive in the future? Now that he knows you hopefully you left your number so if tenants are destroying the place he wouldn’t hesitate to call. Could work out to a be a very good thing for everyone in the future (except for unruly tenants)!
My thoughts exactly!
I think you did the right thing with the $40. You certainly didn’t have to but the goodwill you developed with that neighbor was worth it. He will subconsciously be watching after your house now and will have a good feeling about you every time he drives by it. As a landlord myself, I’m always interested in building a good rapport with the neighbors if the opportunity presents itself.
Neighbors can be so helpful! I would definitely like to be friends with as many of them as possible, especially since we don’t live very close to the place right now.
OH MY GOD those sound like horrible renters. That stinks about the $40, but I think you made the right decision. Being friendly with neighbors (even if you don’t live in the house) can go a long way.
You know, what’s crazy is that for nearly the entire time they were in there we thought they were great tenants! Whenever we stopped by the place appeared tidy, although in hindsight I wish we would have looked closer at certain things. They hardly ever complained about anything or asked us to fix anything- although in retrospect I think that was a bad thing, because there were things like an overhead light that were broken that they never told us about.
I chuckled as I read this — am 99% sure my husband and I would have had the exact same conversation. I’d have paid the guy half what he spent on it, and my husband would have said I was being silly. 🙂
To be fair though, at our own home my husband is the ultra-neighbor. He’s a master electrician and has helped more neighbors than I can count when they’ve had problems in their home.
Funny story: we once lived next door to a widow who was moving and had a garage sale to clear our her stuff. A week later a neighbor from two blocks away knocked on our door — She’s sold him her ceiling fan, saying it came with free installation from my husband. Needless to say it was a surprise to us…. But my husband did indeed do the installation anyway, as a gesture of neighborliness.
That’s too funny about the neighbor who sold the ceiling fan with “free installation!” Your hubby sounds like a great guy to help out all the neighbors so much!
First, the sounds of your tenant troubles are the main reason why I just don’t want to be a landlord that doesn’t live at the property… And even then, I don’t really want to be a landlord 🙂
But the value of neighbors is not really something that’s easy to measure. While I get along with most of my neighbors there used to be one guy that was a real life hoarder. Floor to ceiling stacked with garbage. Since I live in a condo my unit is connected to his with some shared walls. The problems of being a hoarder include pest infestations, fire hazards, and simply being an eyesore. But since I shared walls with him his problems became my problems, for a while I was catching mice every week, it was gross and sad because I really do love animals so trapping them was not something I ever wanted to do.
Anyways, because he was a bad neighbor as far as neighbors went I did him no favors. In fact I wrote letters to the home owners association, board of heath, fire department repeatedly for the issues he was causing me. It took about 4 years to get his place cleaned up and him moved out… actually he didn’t even live there, he just stored his crap there. But living next to friendly people instead of “enemies?” is a much happier living situation.
I also do have neighbors that I would watch their dogs if they needed. My dog loves theirs.
Your former neighbor sounds unbelievably awful! Like call the department of sanitation and get him outta there ASAP type of deal. I think you were totally right to write all those letters. And he didn’t even live there???!! That’s nuts.
Good for you. I think I would have done something very similar, for both purposes of doing the right thing as well as practical reasons of making nice with neighbors.
Thanks. It hurt a little bit at the time to part with the money (especially after we’d already had to spend an extra $100 for the tow truck that day), but I think it was definitely the right thing to do!
I would have felt bad about the umbrella and probably offered something as well. You never know, perhaps that neighborly act will pay for itself 10-fold in the coming years.
Exactly! I prefer to be on a neighbor’s good side just in case 🙂
I think you should absolutely have given him the money!
Sure, he waited a few days before coming over. But he might have been away or just too busy with other things. Heck, he might not have noticed until Sunday. Not to mention that no one has been there for him to ask! If he didn’t see you guys when you toured the place on Friday, Sunday might have been the first time he realized someone was over there so he could retrieve it!
Frankly, I would have given him the whole $60, but $40 seems pretty reasonable since it was an honest mistake.
Yeah, he said he doesn’t look for it every day because it’s not something that they use every day. And you’re right, even if he had wanted to ask us we aren’t there very often so he would not have had the opportunity. The reason I asked him if I could give him $40 instead of $60 was because he said it was a couple years old- I figured that was fair market value for an item of that age. He seemed satisfied that was fair, but if he wouldn’t have been ok with that I probably would have just given him the whole $60. The main thing is that I wanted to be nice to him since he was a neighbor.
Forgot to mention: It’s good to keep neighbors (even for rental houses) happy. If something hinky is ever going down, he’s now more inclined to reach out to you and let you know. Or less inclined to call the cops/city about small infractions. We had neighbors trying to sell their house, and they kept calling the city on us because our yard would get a little unruly. Everyone in our household has health problems, so keeping up with the yard is difficult. I sympathize with them, but we’re not talking 2-foot high weeds or anything. And on 3 separate occasions we were in danger of fines, probably around $200 or more. So yeah, happy neighbors are better.
Oh no! Gosh, what a pain. Especially when you have health problems, the last thing you need is the neighbors calling the city on you constantly! Hopefully those neighbors moved and you have better ones now 🙂
I think you did the right thing, though I probably would have been tempted to just say it was the guys’ own fault amidst all the frustration you were dealing with!
Part of me still kind of feels like it was his own fault- and I can’t help but think that the timing was a little suspicious because he came over so soon after we’d returned from the dump. I wonder if perhaps he had seen it in our yard and just hadn’t gotten around to coming over and then he noticed it was gone? But I’ll never know for sure, and that being the case I kind of thought the best thing to do was give him the benefit of the doubt and be nice to him since he’s our neighbor.
I probably would have but I’m suspicious by nature so I would have had the nagging thought in my head as to whether he saw the stuff getting loaded up, and figured he’d try to ask about an umbrella. Was he home when all the loading up was going on?
I am honestly not sure if he was home or not when the loading was going on. I don’t think he made up the story of the umbrella being his (we did actually find it in a somewhat open position but upside down, so in retrospect his story of it having blown away did fit), but I couldn’t help but wonder a little bit if he had known it was in our yard and he just hadn’t gotten around to coming over to get it yet. I’ll never know!!
It’s always best to do the right thing.
If you are normally renting that unit, having a neighbor that has your best interest in mind is a win. They can clue you in if there is a crazy party happening or even if they are smoking in the house.
It could save thousands in potential damages!!!
Agreed!