Latest / Connor with Honor: AI, Real Estate and Real Life / Talk to the Neighbors: The Essential Guide to Neighbor Investigations in Santa Clarita Real Estate (2025 Edition)
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: I did a show the other day talking about how important it is to talk to neighbors.
- 0:04SPEAKER_00: And this is during the process of buying real estate.
- 0:07SPEAKER_00: If you're selling real estate and you have some odds with your neighbors, maybe that's a good time to have an amends because I know that the neighbors probably want to get good neighbors as well.
- 0:17SPEAKER_00: And if there's something pending between you, your sale, and your neighbor, you might want to talk to them.
- 0:24SPEAKER_00: Some examples of that.
- 0:25SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's some kind of a tree that you have that's growing over your neighbor's property that might need to be repaired or remedied prior to you putting your house up for sale instead of leaving it for the buyer to do.
- 0:36SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's roots growing over onto their property.
- 0:40SPEAKER_00: These are big ticket items, at least that is.
- 0:42SPEAKER_00: The tree can be as well.
- 0:44SPEAKER_00: There are other things that can actually impact home buyers when they're purchasing real estate.
- 0:49SPEAKER_00: And if you've ruined the relationship or your neighbors don't like you for whatever reason or however that unfolded back in the day, God knows how many years ago, maybe it's something you want to fix.
- 1:01SPEAKER_00: So that's not something you have to concern yourself with when it comes to selling your house.
- 1:06SPEAKER_00: But buyers, when you're looking at residential real estate, it's incredibly important that you go talk to the neighbors.
- 1:13SPEAKER_00: And that those are going to be the neighbors that are on all sides that impact your owning this particular piece of property or buying it.
- 1:22SPEAKER_00: Now, in Santa Clarita Valley, there are some things that are kind of accepted.
- 1:25SPEAKER_00: We have shared fences and shared walls in a lot of places.
- 1:29SPEAKER_00: Shared fences or walls meaning a fence.
- 1:32SPEAKER_00: But basically, in Santa Clarita Valley, depending on where you're purchasing the house, it could be one cinder block or wrought iron or chain link or some type of fence separating the two properties.
- 1:44SPEAKER_00: And this particular fence is basically half yours and half the neighbor, neighbors going right down that property line.
- 1:52SPEAKER_00: And then in other places in Santa Clarita, that exists, but then you have these oddly shaped lots as you get further back.
- 1:59SPEAKER_00: Now the lot's rectangular in nature, at least for the front end and the two sides, but as you get further back into the lot, what you end up finding is because there's some kind of an easement maybe by a power company or the city, you're gonna have some jaggedness in the back.
- 2:16SPEAKER_00: And there might not be a fence back there at all.
- 2:18SPEAKER_00: But you're gonna have now that back neighbor, somebody that might be behind you, maybe they have charge of that particular fence.
- 2:26SPEAKER_00: So this comes up.
- 2:27SPEAKER_00: So let's talk just a little bit about this.
- 2:29SPEAKER_00: And I put together this napkin getting into some of the importance of vetting those neighbors, and this should be done right at the very beginning.
- 2:40SPEAKER_00: So, of course, if you're gonna be buying real estate anywhere in Santa Clarita, you're probably gonna be talking to your agent, and your agent's probably going to try to identify areas for you depending on what you're looking for.
- 2:53SPEAKER_00: Now, as far as you know, crime here, this is a pro problem, those are really good investigations for you to partake of yourself just because your agent has a vesting in the interest and an interest in you purchasing a house, it's called their commission.
- 3:09SPEAKER_00: Now, while they should be completely up front with you and not play games and be completely as transparent as possible, sometimes human beings look at the money instead of the people, and that's unfortunate.
- 3:22SPEAKER_00: So to do your research, and that includes other types of research besides maybe calling the local law enforcement agency and hey, you know about buying this house, this is the address.
- 3:32SPEAKER_00: Do you have anybody I might be able to talk to maybe that handles that specific area?
- 3:35SPEAKER_00: I know with Los Angeles Police Department there were detectives that handled different types of crimes, some burglary, some robbery, some so on.
- 3:44SPEAKER_00: They do have those types of detectives assigned with the sheriff's departments as well.
- 3:49SPEAKER_00: Also, there's going to be probably an officer, or actually deputy, excuse me, a deputy with the sheriff's department that's going to be in charge of a basic car or a particular geographical area.
- 4:02SPEAKER_00: So let's say you're trying to buy in Valencia, there could be an officer that their main function, the officers on that particular watch, worked Bridgeport area, for example, or North Park, or any of those other areas.
- 4:15SPEAKER_00: Tesoro de Valle, maybe.
- 4:17SPEAKER_00: Castac, there's probably a deputy there.
- 4:19SPEAKER_00: Maybe somebody that's in close proximity to the lake for Stevenson Ranch.
- 4:25SPEAKER_00: There could also be a deputy assigned over there as well.
- 4:28SPEAKER_00: That's probably a good place to start for the law enforcement type investigation.
- 4:33SPEAKER_00: Just find out who that is and see what they think about the area and find out what kind of issues there could potentially have.
- 4:40SPEAKER_00: Now you have Megan's Law for the Registered Sex Offenders.
- 4:43SPEAKER_00: This is something else that you're going to want to look into.
- 4:46SPEAKER_00: A lot of that stuff's online.
- 4:47SPEAKER_00: Just before you get too far online, make sure the site you're looking at is actually, well, the Megan's Law site.
- 4:55SPEAKER_00: And if you're going to be looking up crime statistics and downloading an app on your phone, make sure it's a legit app.
- 5:02SPEAKER_00: So do a little bit of research.
- 5:04SPEAKER_00: None of these things should be paid for.
- 5:07SPEAKER_00: It's just going to depend on the app.
- 5:09SPEAKER_00: But most of them don't cost anything, but they supplement the income of the cost of the app with putting up ads.
- 5:16SPEAKER_00: Just watch out for that and be wary.
- 5:18SPEAKER_00: But again, look at those, kind of see what's happened.
- 5:21SPEAKER_00: Local law enforcement connection is going to be important.
- 5:24SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, don't forget that investigation with your homeowners association.
- 5:28SPEAKER_00: Most of the properties have a homeowners association.
- 5:31SPEAKER_00: So that's another good thing for you to call that organization.
- 5:34SPEAKER_00: You can actually do that at the very beginning of escrow once you have your contract accepted.
- 5:40SPEAKER_00: Now, looking at these properties, that's also important to think about because you're going to want to do that at the very beginning.
- 5:46SPEAKER_00: And I say this kind of tongue in cheek, but before you spend any money, the money you're going to be spending early on in escrow is going to be coming out of your pocket.
- 5:55SPEAKER_00: It's going to be what you're going to be paying for the appraisal on the property if you're going to be getting a loan, and most people do when they're talking about Santa Clarita real estate, just because of the price points upwards of$500 all the way up way over millions dollars.
- 6:09SPEAKER_00: It's not like the Platinum Triangle, Beverly Hills, Hombie Hills, and Bel Air, but it is very expensive.
- 6:15SPEAKER_00: So most of those are at least low enough to obtain financing.
- 6:19SPEAKER_00: When you're talking, you know, tens and twenty, thirty million dollar properties like I was talking about before, the unfortunate ones that have burned down over in the Pacific Palisades in that part of Los Angeles, those particular properties, a lot of those are purchased with cash or they were bought a very long time ago when the prices were a lot less and that ownership has stayed stable for a very long time.
- 6:40SPEAKER_00: But if you are going to be getting an appraisal, because you are going to be getting a mortgage, do yourselves a favor and make sure that you do your neighbor investigation prior to paying out that money.
- 6:52SPEAKER_00: The other thing that you're going to be paying for early on in escrow is going to be the home inspector.
- 6:56SPEAKER_00: So you want to make sure that you go do this door knocking that we're about to talk about prior to doing that.
- 7:02SPEAKER_00: So when you go and do this, what I always suggest to my clients is I'm more than happy to go with them.
- 7:07SPEAKER_00: They don't have to go it alone.
- 7:09SPEAKER_00: And I think that does help because I'm going to be knocking on the door saying, hey, this is so-and-so and so-and-so.
- 7:15SPEAKER_00: We're in next door, your neighbor's house, or the one behind you, or the one in front of you.
- 7:19SPEAKER_00: And we're just here because I always tell my clients it's a good idea to come talk to the neighbors and see what the neighbors think about the neighborhood and see if there's any education you can give us with regards to the goings-ons here.
- 7:33SPEAKER_00: And most of the time we will end up running into that neighbor that has a lot to say.
- 7:38SPEAKER_00: And they're going to be telling you who's who, who comes home at what time, who works where, and so on.
- 7:44SPEAKER_00: That's probably not a bad neighbor to know, but also understand that's going to be the neighbor that is going to develop a theory about you and your family as well, when you come home, when you leave, and so on, which isn't bad.
- 7:55SPEAKER_00: Usually you have somebody like that in most neighborhoods that watch out.
- 7:58SPEAKER_00: So, you know, check it out and see if you find somebody like that when you do your investigations.
- 8:03SPEAKER_00: The other thing that I tell my clients to look for is to find out who's renting and who owns.
- 8:10SPEAKER_00: A lot of this is maybe even more important with condos or townhomes because you're very much more in closer proximity to your neighbors.
- 8:19SPEAKER_00: Now, is it bad to be living next to a place that's rented out?
- 8:23SPEAKER_00: Of course not.
- 8:24SPEAKER_00: But home ownership carries a higher level of responsibility for a lot of people.
- 8:30SPEAKER_00: So saying it as gently as possible, you want to see what the neighbors are.
- 8:34SPEAKER_00: And if you're surrounded by a whole bunch of rentals, then you might want to talk to those in your periphery and see if that's something that they might suggest as being okay or not okay, or whatever it may be.
- 8:46SPEAKER_00: I know that you'll be looking for other support systems within your real estate purchase, and you'll be asking those questions.
- 8:53SPEAKER_00: A lot of the condominiums and townhomes, it's really hard to prevent.
- 8:57SPEAKER_00: Man, a lot of times those folks that are living in there, they're fantastic.
- 9:00SPEAKER_00: They've been great.
- 9:01SPEAKER_00: But if you go to a place and everybody's a drummer and they have an entire band of drummers living next to you, that might be something that's going to create issues, especially when you have that one and two and three-year-old that can't sleep during the night because people are pounding on the drums.
- 9:16SPEAKER_00: Things to think about.
- 9:17SPEAKER_00: Alright, so condos and townhomes, they do have those shared walls typically.
- 9:23SPEAKER_00: There are some single-family residences here in Santa Clarita that also have shared things.
- 9:27SPEAKER_00: They're going to be attached single-family homes.
- 9:31SPEAKER_00: So an example of that, you have a real fard, a real backyard, but they're connected to each other.
- 9:36SPEAKER_00: You have two, and typically it's going to be the garage wall, and it could also be a different wall in the residence where the garages are separate.
- 9:46SPEAKER_00: But usually it's just that singular wall all the way down.
- 9:50SPEAKER_00: And the questions to ask with those definitely want to find out who those neighbors are.
- 9:55SPEAKER_00: Because if something floods or goes wrong in their property, it could impact your property and vice versa.
- 10:02SPEAKER_00: In addition, I know this is a lot.
- 10:04SPEAKER_00: I do talk to my buyers throughout the entire process, so don't get overwhelmed.
- 10:08SPEAKER_00: The other thing to think about might be an insurance concern.
- 10:12SPEAKER_00: Now, right now we're at the about the 2nd, where are we, 10th of January 2025.
- 10:16SPEAKER_00: And right now, if you're watching this in a historical way, this is when all of the Pacific Palisades was on fire there in Los Angeles with the super high winds.
- 10:26SPEAKER_00: Well, when you go in to looking at any residential real estate, at the very beginning, if you contact your insurance agent, they should be able to tell you if there's been any insurance claims on the property when they're talking to you about getting, giving you insurance on the residence.
- 10:42SPEAKER_00: That's something that we used to wait three and four weeks into escrow right before closing because we never had to worry about insurance.
- 10:49SPEAKER_00: That's going to very much change by these fires in 2025, as it has changed in the past.
- 10:55SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of insurance companies that are leaving the state.
- 10:58SPEAKER_00: They're not rewriting policies.
- 10:59SPEAKER_00: So if you're buying a house that, of course, has insurance on it now with a particular insurance carrier, and you decide to buy it thinking, well, I'll just take that insurance over, doesn't work that way because some of those insurance carriers aren't going to be writing any more policies or renewing any policies.
- 11:17SPEAKER_00: But that clue report is going to give you on an attached residence or any other.
- 11:22SPEAKER_00: It's going to give you an idea of what those past insurance claims have been, and I think that's good going in.
- 11:28SPEAKER_00: And you'll know that throughout your investigations when you are purchasing real estate.
- 11:33SPEAKER_00: So of course we have those properties that are behind, those properties that are in front of, and those properties that are next to.
- 11:40SPEAKER_00: If it's a condominium or town home, you know, that's something else to consider.
- 11:45SPEAKER_00: Which ones are going to have the most impact on yours?
- 11:48SPEAKER_00: Is it going to be the properties that are attached to it?
- 11:51SPEAKER_00: If you're sharing parking, or if you have like a cluster of townhomes, even a cluster of single residences, which exist out here, that's also something else to investigate.
- 12:02SPEAKER_00: You might not have other property owners that are directly next to, but you're going to have them that kind of share this little area where people are going to drive in.
- 12:11SPEAKER_00: Kind of cool, you know, to go talk to everybody and see what's happening.
- 12:14SPEAKER_00: And I say here, bring your agent with you.
- 12:17SPEAKER_00: I don't think there's any issue with that.
- 12:18SPEAKER_00: Most agents, you know, they love meeting people anyway, right?
- 12:22SPEAKER_00: We're people people.
- 12:23SPEAKER_00: So it's good to go meet everybody to do that.
- 12:25SPEAKER_00: So please drag your agent with you.
- 12:27SPEAKER_00: If they've never heard of this, um, well, again, maybe it's the cop background in me, but you're gonna be living there at least, what is it, 4.7 or 4.9 years.
- 12:37SPEAKER_00: That's the general statistic on how long you're being gonna be living in your first residence.
- 12:43SPEAKER_00: That's a long time to live next to somebody that you might have been able to prevent if you just would have met them prior to closing escrow or prior to even finishing the transaction.
- 12:54SPEAKER_00: Alright, so here's what we're gonna do.
- 12:56SPEAKER_00: You're gonna ask them a few things.
- 12:58SPEAKER_00: You want to find out if they own the property, you want to find out if they rent the property, and then you want to talk about what they know about the area, maybe where they shop, what do they like to do?
- 13:09SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe there's some neighbor.
- 13:11SPEAKER_00: I lived in Burbank for a while, there was a cat named David.
- 13:14SPEAKER_00: And David wasn't all there.
- 13:17SPEAKER_00: David would go to 7-Eleven wearing these large welding gloves.
- 13:22SPEAKER_00: 7-Eleven was maybe three blocks away walking, and he would walk with his large welding gloves to 7-Eleven and get one of those big 44-ounce double super big gulps, the real big ones, and he would walk home and he would stop at the end of the street and he would start screaming of how happy he was because he just bought a super big gulp and his hands aren't cold because he's wearing welding gloves.
- 13:50SPEAKER_00: That was David.
- 13:51SPEAKER_00: And not a big deal if David does it at three or four in the afternoon, I guess.
- 13:56SPEAKER_00: But sometimes David would do it because, you know, 7-Eleven wasn't open just from 7-Eleven, it was 24 hours, and it was at the corner of Magnolia and where was it?
- 14:05SPEAKER_00: Maybe Oliver Victory there in Burbank.
- 14:08SPEAKER_00: But anyway, that was David, and uh so the police got called on him quite a bit.
- 14:12SPEAKER_00: If I would have checked with the neighbors back then, they would have probably told me about Mr.
- 14:18SPEAKER_00: David.
- 14:19SPEAKER_00: Not that that's an issue, but you know, at least you know going in what you can be talking to other people.
- 14:25SPEAKER_00: So find that out and do this, as I said earlier, prior to paying for the services like the inspections and uh or before the inspections and before the appraisal as well.
- 14:36SPEAKER_00: That's incredibly important.
- 14:37SPEAKER_00: The neighbors are gonna be able to tell you a lot of things, and you'll get a good feeling as to what the neighbors do.
- 14:43SPEAKER_00: You might find out where they go to work.
- 14:46SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're gonna be commuting and the neighbors also commute.
- 14:48SPEAKER_00: Maybe that could be a commuting relationship.
- 14:51SPEAKER_00: You're also gonna talk to them about maybe some potential issues.
- 14:54SPEAKER_00: When it's a condominium or townhome or a place that's located in a homeowners association, the one thing that might be important to investigate or ask about, and again, you should be getting this from the homeowners association if you have a good diligent agent and they're getting the right paperwork.
- 15:09SPEAKER_00: But one of the things you might check into is if the homeowners association routinely raises its bills.
- 15:16SPEAKER_00: I do know that I've been doing these little neighbor intros here at the very beginning.
- 15:20SPEAKER_00: They say, oh my gosh, well, and this is prior to us getting the disclosures from the seller, oh my gosh, the HOA just sent us a notice a couple days ago where the homeowners association dues are going up$300 a month for the next three years.
- 15:33SPEAKER_00: Well, that's a lot.
- 15:34SPEAKER_00: And that's it, and it's gonna pay for something.
- 15:37SPEAKER_00: They're just not because they want to have extra pizza parties, but it is gonna be something that the buyer's gonna have to undertake, and you would have found out about it anyway, but maybe found out about it after you drop the$750 or$1,000 fee for the appraisal and the five or six or seven hundred dollar fee for the home inspector, which that money you don't get back if you happen to change your mind.
- 15:57SPEAKER_00: The deposit money more than likely you would get back, but it depends on what you would do in that contract, the one that you wrote because you wanted the property so bad.
- 16:07SPEAKER_00: And if you're competing with other buyers, you might have whittled away and given away some of your God-given rights and contract in the way of removing some of your contingencies or reducing those time frames.
- 16:20SPEAKER_00: That being the case, make sure you do those investigations diligently and know when you're writing that offer what your agent, what you guys have discussed with regard to time frames about how long you're going to have to do what we're talking about here.
- 16:35SPEAKER_00: Do your inspections, due diligence, neighbor door knocks, do your investigations, and those sorts of things.
- 16:41SPEAKER_00: Right now in the state of California, and all contracts are all legalese, but it is 17 days, which is typical to do inspections and stuff.
- 16:50SPEAKER_00: That's that's quite a bit of time.
- 16:51SPEAKER_00: That's pretty good.
- 16:52SPEAKER_00: If you want to whittle that down because you want to be as competitive as other buyers, you can probably get away with it.
- 16:57SPEAKER_00: It's going to depend on when the property is, the availability of the inspector, the availability of the appraiser, how nimble the lender is, how how busy or not busy your real estate agent is, also their time in the game.
- 17:09SPEAKER_00: You know, how long have they been doing this?
- 17:11SPEAKER_00: Do they know parts of the process?
- 17:12SPEAKER_00: And do they have enough historical reference points to be able to offer you good representation and to best advise you on what you should be doing if, in fact, you're changing any of those contingencies.
- 17:25SPEAKER_00: All right, so when we move into Santa Clarita Valley, most of the houses are gonna be kind of close.
- 17:30SPEAKER_00: But we're talking about uh Aqua Dulce and Acton.
- 17:34SPEAKER_00: A little bit further up fact, some of these properties, you might not have any neighbors, you might not see them.
- 17:41SPEAKER_00: So in Acton and Aqua Dulce, one of the things I would tell you is, you know, do your best.
- 17:46SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be a plot map potentially buying one of these residences that really have no visible neighbors.
- 17:53SPEAKER_00: And there's not a lot, but they're there.
- 17:55SPEAKER_00: And what I would suggest is seeing what your agent can do about discovering who owns those properties and kind of getting an idea of maybe what kind of future those properties might reveal.
- 18:06SPEAKER_00: Again, it's not gonna be all done.
- 18:08SPEAKER_00: You're probably not gonna be able to figure out a lot of it.
- 18:11SPEAKER_00: If you have a neighbor that's gonna be driving distance away from your property because they share a fence line, I would definitely recommend you meeting them as well.
- 18:20SPEAKER_00: That's very important.
- 18:21SPEAKER_00: So please do that.
- 18:23SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be a little bit of a pain.
- 18:24SPEAKER_00: Your agent might squawk a little bit, but you know, you're paying them or somebody's paying them, so they need their keep and their fee.
- 18:31SPEAKER_00: But have them take you over there.
- 18:33SPEAKER_00: And those are good neighbors to talk to as well because they're gonna really know what goes on.
- 18:38SPEAKER_00: And if maybe you're a city dweller and now you're moving out in this rural environment, um, you know, maybe they'll have some good tips on how to without hearing all the honking and the horn noise from the traffic that you're used to because you grew up in Los Angeles or San Francisco or Peru.
- 18:55SPEAKER_00: They honk the horn like it's a second language over there.
- 18:58SPEAKER_00: So in Acton, California, something to look at.
- 19:00SPEAKER_00: Also, they'll tell you Acton Acton and Aqua Dulce they do have um septic tanks in some of the properties.
- 19:08SPEAKER_00: They do have water that has to be trucked in.
- 19:11SPEAKER_00: If you're not used to those sorts of things, that's a cool question to ask.
- 19:15SPEAKER_00: Your agent, you can research septic tanks and tanked in water online, and that's fine.
- 19:20SPEAKER_00: But actually actually getting it from a person that does that routinely because that's how their property is configured, that's kind of cool.
- 19:27SPEAKER_00: And I think that would help answer a lot of questions also.
- 19:30SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking about, you know, saving dinner with the folks, but you know, 10, 15, 20 minutes, you get a lot of information.
- 19:36SPEAKER_00: Agent's a good guy, they'll be able to ask the right questions.
- 19:39SPEAKER_00: But this is just food for thought.
- 19:41SPEAKER_00: Looking at the different properties, canyon country, most of those, the neighbors are gonna be a little close.
- 19:46SPEAKER_00: If you go to Sand Canyon, maybe not as close as you would think.
- 19:50SPEAKER_00: There are some very large lots, placerated canyon out there.
- 19:53SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's gonna also carry some more further away properties, but again, it's definitely doable and definitely worth you meeting all the neighbors and making the best decisions possible.
- 20:06SPEAKER_00: All right, so when you're looking at the neighbors, you're you'll have time because you're gonna be doing this right after your offer is accepted.
- 20:14SPEAKER_00: So there's not gonna be any any time wasting.
- 20:18SPEAKER_00: Um, I would say do it with every property you look at, but a lot of handshaking and baby hugging.
- 20:23SPEAKER_00: That's gonna be probably a little too much.
- 20:26SPEAKER_00: But they'll tell you all about the neighborhood, they'll talk to you about the pool.
- 20:29SPEAKER_00: If if you're buying in an area, let's say it has a community pool and you love pools, but you don't want to have the one of a responsibility of having it your own pad or putting one in later or whatever it may be.
- 20:39SPEAKER_00: You know, that's that's good, especially you'll run into somebody that probably loves the pool, and they'll be able to say, oh yeah, nine o'clock on Mondays are great.
- 20:46SPEAKER_00: Maybe you work the swing shift and it went well.
- 20:48SPEAKER_00: But anyway, it's very important talking to your neighbors.
- 20:51SPEAKER_00: This is something a lot of agents don't talk about.
- 20:53SPEAKER_00: Um, maybe it adds time to the process.
- 20:56SPEAKER_00: But do yourselves a favor, this obligation, whenever you're purchasing any real estate anywhere.
- 21:03SPEAKER_00: I'm Connor with Honor.
- 21:04SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for watching.
- 21:06SPEAKER_00: We will be back in the next one.
- 21:07SPEAKER_00: Find everything you need at Santa Clarita Openhouses.com.
- 21:11SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you watching as well.
- 21:13SPEAKER_00: We'll talk to you soon.
- 21:14SPEAKER_00: Take care.
- 21:14SPEAKER_00: Over and out.
- 21:15SPEAKER_00: There's the over and out salute.
- 21:16SPEAKER_00: Be well.