Episode 061 - STRR - How to Be a Good Neighbor and Why It's Important

I’m certain most of us have grown up with wonderful neighbors but that is becoming a thing of the past.  More and more people move so often, they don’t even bother learning who their neighbors are.  Michelle invites you to not only get to know your neighbors but to make them a part of your life.  She’s been blessed with wonderful neighbors and she hopes you are, too.  Here are 7 things you can do for your neighbors and 7 reasons you should get to know them better. 

Transcript of this Episode:

Hi, this is Michelle, the master of money mindset, and you are listening to BNB dash boss podcast and in today's podcast. So on Friday, we do a repeat of the short-term rental revenue. And this episode is all about being a good neighbor. And I think it's really important. Honestly, it's one of the most important things that we can do is be good neighbors.

You really don't want to piss off people in your neighborhood. It's not a good idea. The reason why is, and you can probably guess is they can make your life, hell they can get with hos. They can get with other neighbors and they can do you a lot of harm trying to bother your guests or even ban your business.

So you want to be a good neighbor and this is all about being a good neighbor. I think it's super important. So take a listen. I'll be popping in maybe and, uh, checking in at the end for sure. Enjoy. And I hope you guys forgive me because I'm still a little bit under the weather, but, um, I'm getting over it and I wanted to get these recordings done so that we can stay ahead of the flow, but being a good neighbor is extremely important for your business.

And I hope by the end of this episode, to be able to convey to you all the reasons why it's so important to be a great neighbor to someone. And all the benefits that being a great neighbor gives to you too. So being good to somebody else is actually beneficial for you too. So it's almost one of those selfish things I think giving to charity is a very selfish thing.

I know that some people are like, huh, what? But when I give to charity, I feel so good that I think it's pretty much just for me. Like, I feel so good about that. It's almost like nobody else was getting any benefit. I get all the good feelings, but I want you to know that it's the same thing about being a good neighbor.

There are so many more benefits for you being kind to somebody than there are them just being kind to you. You get so much more out of that relationship. And so I want to make sure that you listen to this all the way through so that you can hear all the benefits of being a good. I also wanted to touch on a little bit and it makes me a little sad to think about it, but I had the most wonderful neighbor.

His name was Jesse, and he was our neighbor for many, many years, about eight years in Gilbert. And we had a beautiful home and they were right next door. And when we first moved in, Jesse, just correct me. Because we were redoing our backyard. There was nothing in our backyard. It was all dirt, just Arizona dirt.

And when you say Arizona dirt, it means there's nothing but dirt guys. There's no weeds in there. It's just the deserty hard cement like dirt. And that was our whole backyard. And in Arizona, most of the backyards were, we're surrounded by these big block walls that are six feet or more. And over this wall pops this little head, Jesse, our neighbor, he had gotten a ladder and he had leaned it against the wall and he just wanted to see, I had like all this noise going on and all these guys working in the backyard and he just wanted to see what was up.

And I thought that was so cute. My husband was like, can you believe this guy just looking over like that? And I said, oh my God, he's a door. Her bulb looking at me. He's so great. So we became fast friends. I loved my neighbor, Jesse and his wife, and they were amazing, amazing people. We had such a great relationship.

I mean, we would stand outside and talk for hours about politics. He was from California and he was a conservative, but he had not began his life that way. And neither had eyes. So we talked about our upbringing. We had come around and we would have these long, long conversations. And he was just a really wonderful man.

His wife was just beautiful. She was amazing. But every year we would have these Halloween mazes that we would make in our yard and throughout our garage, you know, we would put these tents up and have blow up things and have fog machines and just a bunch of stuff. And the very first year. We did it.

Jesse came over because we kept blowing the electrical box. We kept blowing the amps and he came to the rescue. I mean, we had a line down the street of kids waiting to go through our haunted house when we blew the power and we couldn't get it to trigger back on. He came with power cords and everything, and the very next year he held.

Set it up. So we did zones, so we never had that challenge ever again. But I mean, he was an amazing, amazing neighbor. He used to do my yard for me when I was away in Florida and he was into motorcycles. He loved his Harley. He was an older gentleman, but he had this wonderful Harley and I would get him these Mickey mouse Harley shirts because they had a Harley Davidson store.

At downtown Disney, which is now Disney Springs, but it was a really great relationship right before we sold our house right before Halloween, the year we moved, Jesse was hit by car, on his motorcycle and killed instantly in front of the Starbucks, uh, a new Starbucks that had gone in and he was on his motorcycle.

They didn't see him, which most drivers don't see people on bikes on motorcycles, they'll turn into them quite often. And that's what happened to Jesse. So he died instantly and, and it was just, it was just incredibly sad and really, really was. Um, so I want to dedicate this episode to Jesse. He wants. An amazing man and just a wonderful, wonderful neighbor.

Honestly, he had just made president of the homeowner's association too. And he did not want to be, which was kind of a joke because he was like, oh, you know, I never wanted to be the president, but he didn't want to see the neighborhood go downhill. And so he was reluctant about doing it. The fact that he, I think he had one meeting where he was the homeowners association president, but he was a great guy.

So I'm going to dedicate this episode to Jesse, my neighbor. And let's talk about what constitutes being a good neighbor to somebody. Okay. So most people think of neighbors. One of my favorite things growing up was Mrs. Kravitz. I don't know if any of you ever watched all those old shows, but Mrs. Kravitz was the nosy old neighbor.

She used to watch what was going on through the curtains and over the fences in the show, Bewitched when I was a young kid. And that's what most people think of neighbors as these nosy people, but here's the deal. I mean, if they live next, They just want to know what's going on. Especially older people. I realized that when I was very young, how they like to know what's going on.

I mean, they don't usually work. And my neighbor Jesse was retired, but he started working right before he passed. I think he was doing security and stuff just to keep himself busy. But most of the time they've got nothing else to do. So they love knowing what's going on in the neighborhood. And that can be hugely beneficial to you.

It can be an amazing asset because those nosy neighbors are really watching out for the security of the neighborhood. Years ago, we had lived in a neighborhood that had a robbery take place while everyone in the neighborhood watched it. And what had happened was the people had gone on vacation and didn't tell anyone in the neighborhood.

So a bunch of us saw these moving vans move in, you know, like park at the house and start moving furniture out. And they just kept going with all this stuff. And all of us just thought that the people were moving. I mean, we didn't think anything of it. We all saw it. Nobody said anything. Nobody called the police.

I mean, it was just, it was not on our radar. And then later the people got home and their whole entire house had been. And they were like, didn't anybody see anything? And everybody was like, yeah, of course we all saw something, but none of us thought anything because they were very to themselves and nobody knew them or said hi to them.

Didn't even know their first names. The people were so to themselves and nobody knew what was going on in their life. Therefore they didn't know anything wrong was going on. So it just showed all of us, the importance of letting our neighbors know a little bit about what was going on in our lives so that they could watch out for us and watch out for our pats and watch out for our kids.

So what's really crazy is when I was growing up, we knew all of our neighbors. There was Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. Bell, Joe and Mrs. Polski and Mrs. Rooney and Mrs. Valascus. I mean, we knew. Everybody in our neighborhood. Our parents not just knew each other too, but all of us kids, the neighbor ladies knew us. So if you did something wrong, it wasn't impossible that, you know, Mrs.

Topolsky would look out the window and say, Michelle, Renee, I'm going to tell you her mother on, you know, if you don't put that down or if you don't stop doing that, it was that type of relationship. We knew when people were on vacation. They knew if someone was at work. If my mom was at work and my sisters and I were home by ourselves, which wasn't unusual back in those days, I can't remember how old we were, but my mom would just leave us home alone.

We were probably 12. I mean, I was probably 12 and I was watching everybody else or maybe 10. I don't even remember, but all the neighbor ladies were pitching in as well. They were making sure that, did you eat something? Did your mom leave you something? Blah, blah, blah. I mean, They always watched out for us and vice versa.

My mom watched out for their kids when everybody was at work. So it's just different nowadays. Especially I see neighborhoods where people go, I don't know any of my neighbors. I don't even know their first names or their last names. I know nothing about them. And I'm like, you have to get to know your neighbors, especially if you have a short-term rent.

It's really important to get to know your neighbors and be on a great level with them, a great friendship level with them. And there's a bunch of different reasons why you'll want to do this, but don't consider them being nosy. Just consider them being informed because the more informed they are, the more secure your neighborhood.

And that's just common sense. Think of it from the security standpoints. They'll tell you if anything strange is going on when they know you're at work or they know you're away, they can say, Hey, somebody was over at your house. Is this normal? And if they have your phone number for work, they can give you a taxi.

Is it normal that there's a cable guy in front of your house? Or is it normal that there's a car parked out front of your yard or something? They'll let you know, they'll text you and say something funny is going on. And if they see anybody taking something from your house, you can be darn sure that they're going to call the police because they're like this isn't normal.

Michelle didn't say anything to me about this happening. And I know that Jesse definitely would have done that. He watched our house like. He knew who was there. He knew exactly when I was going to Florida, when I would come here back, even though Kevin was home, he was watching the house during the day and, and he made sure that nothing happened.

So I keep on good rapport with my neighbors. I like doing that because I like them feeling that they're important enough to know what was going on in my life. And it empowers them to take action when they see anything wrong. There's also a great sense of pride of ownership, not just with us, but with our neighbors and we can join forces together.

So when I'm taking care of y'all. I might do something for them, but whenever I left for Florida, Jesse took care of my yard. He would take his edger and make sure that the grass doesn't creep over the borders. And it looks just really nice. It looks beautiful. Like it's very, very well-manicured and Jessie would always do that.

I could always tell when I came home from Florida, I was looking at my yard. The grass is beautiful. It's green it's well-manicured and trimmed. I mean, he took great care of my yard for me, and he loved doing it. It was just, you know, uh, right next to his yard, it wasn't like it was a big chore for him. He loved to do it though and took great pride in doing it.

And I took great pride too, in my head. And especially because it was next to Jesse. So he had these two beautiful yards, these two beautiful houses right next to each other. And it's nice. It's nice having that pride of ownership and Jesse helped me and I helped him. So I think that's, that was really great.

It's also safer for your guests. So, if you ever have guests stain by themselves, especially our properties that are near the universities. A lot of times we'll get single women as guests or single moms, and they'll come in without a husband or without a spouse, or maybe they're just single moms who knows, but they'll come alone to go see their kids at the university and they'll be stained by themselves, but nothing makes them feel more secure than knowing that there's someone next door who has them.

All you have to do is scream or shout. Here's the phone number, and this is our neighbor. They live right here and they will come over and check on you. If anything is needed. We had a young girl staying at one of our properties down in Tucson, and someone was coming around the house right outside the window.

And she had texted me and I said, no, there should be no one there at the property. And all I had to do was call. And boom, someone came over and checked on her and I'm telling you, she texted me back. And she said, thank you so much. I feel so much safer just knowing that they're right next door. That they're right near me.

And if I need anything, I know I can just shout out and there they are. So that's an important quality and actually a really great asset to have when people are traveling alone, especially women traveling. Jen know that there's somebody close by, who's got their back and watching out for them. So I think that's a great feature.

And then there's going to be guests who really, really love to talk. Now I love to talk. I really do, but I'm not by my properties all the time. Actually. I'm very seldom buy any of my properties unless I'm there. But I have some neighbors who love to talk and they're so great. They are so great with my guests because my gas, when they come out, they're visiting from someplace else.

And especially the properties in Florida and the ones down in the keys, they might say something like, oh, where's a good place to go get something to eat. And the neighbor will be like, oh, go here and talk to Joe and say that I sent you and people love it. They love to be on the inside of anything. And so it's really cool to have neighbors, you know, that are going to sit and talk to people who want to talk.

And they'll know too. It's kind of funny because there are going to be some guests who don't want to talk and they'll just wave or shake their head and nod their head and walk by. And my neighbors won't get up in their face or anything, but then if somebody says something to them or ask them a question, then they will form a quick bond.

And they'll love staying at my place because my neighbors are so incredibly friendly and they're friendly because I have given them a place where they can be friendly and a reason to be friendly. And I think that's an amazing opportunity for everyone. To make friends and expand and have these wonderful relationships, not just with each other.

Yeah. As neighbors, but with my neighbor and my guests who come to, and sometimes my guests will come over and over and over and they'll even ask, how is who's the neighbors? So how is Jesse, how's he doing? Oh, is he still got that motorcycle? Oh my gosh. He's always in his yard fixing that motorcycle or he's always doing this so they know things and it's kind of fun and it gets to be like a thing, especially those guests who come over and over again, they know things and they feel like they're a part of basically a family and it's a great community, a great piece of community to be involved in.

They also get to share things. What's cool about sharing things. When you are stained somewhere, something might go wrong in your car or something else. And you're like, oh man, I just, I need a screwdriver or I'm going to make some, but I just need one more egg and we're leaving tomorrow morning or something will happen.

And it's really cool because they know they can go and just ask the neighbor, can I borrow your screwdriver real quick? Can I borrow an egg? Do you have a couple of sugar kind of things? So when you have nice friendly neighbors and they know that the neighbors are right there for them, they have no qualms about borrowing something or going to them.

And what's really cool is I make sure that I make amends for those things. So when I'm in town, I bring all kinds of gifts over to my neighbors. If I'm baking, I bring cookies over there. If I'm doing something else, I, I. You know, food over. If we're barbecuing, I'll invite them over to our house to join us.

If we're doing anything, that's going to involve my neighbors. I'm going to involve my neighbors in almost everything I do. And they know that and they love that. And a lot of times they'll just say, oh no, we're just going to stay over here. It's just you and your kids or something. But the fact that they're invited, I think makes them feel great.

And the fact that I constantly bring things over to them, things that I know they like. So Jesse and his shirts, I had another one. Who, another neighbor who loved gardening. So I would bring plants over or sometimes these beautiful pots and they love those or wind chimes anytime I'm out. And I see wind chimes, I get wind chime.

So when you are kind to your neighbors, they are kind to other people and there's something called retro prosody. So when you give, give, give to somebody, they, they feel a sense of reciprocity, meaning they feel like they want to give back to you too. And that's a great feeling. It's not an, I owe them feeling, but it's an, I want to do for these people because they care about me.

I want to show them that I care about them. And so it forms a much tighter bond in your community, between people who do for each other. Not because they have to, but because they want to, and it also provides this great peaceful life. Like you are totally and completely at peace. You feel safe. You feel surrounded by people who care about you.

You feel like you're in a community of people who care. And what's really cool is they do care and you know, they, they care about you. They care about your kids. They care about your property. They watch your cars, everything, our neighbors know everybody's cars, everybody's everything. And some people, they go, well, that just bothers me.

I mean, that's a little too nosy and you're like, why, why is that? Why does it bother you? That I would know what kind of car my neighbor drives, because that way I can tell when it's her car in the driveway or somebody else. And I might be like, well, Jan's not home. And her car is not there. Whose car is this?

And it puts up my radar. Not that I'm trying to get into Jan's business, but that's Jan's house and I'm going to protect Jann's house because I'm her neighbor. And I care about. I'm not trying to get in her business. I just want to make sure that no one's breaking into her home or doing something that they shouldn't.

And Jam's not offended by that. Jan actually appreciates that. Oh my gosh, Michelle, I forgot to tell you, I, my car broke down and I had to get a loaner wallets in the shop and getting fixed. And I forgot to tell you, but thank you so much because if that had been somebody else's car, holy cow, I really appreciate you.

And I really appreciate knowing the fact that you're looking out for me in my house. They love that. It's not like they feel like you're being intrusive. They love the fact that you're taking care of them and that you care enough to call them and check on them and make sure that everything is okay.

That just makes for a wonderful, peaceful life with not a lot of stress, because you know that you're surrounded by people who care about you. So I think it's a great way to live another great benefit for having good neighbors, especially when you're doing short-term rental. Is the fact that if you have a great neighbor, they can accept packages for you.

I love that because a lot of my places I'm gone for a long period of time in between. But I have neighbors who I trust and they'll accept packages from Amazon, for me, or I'll even address stuff to my neighbors and they can restock, you know, all my supplies. If I'm running lower on something, I don't have to have somebody else do it because somebody else might charge me a lot to do it.

My cleaning companies do a lot of restocking. And I have some maintenance guys who do restocking, but if it's something little or something that I don't want to get a big charge for, if nobody's coming out to the house, instead of paying for that extra fee for them to come out and charge something, I'll just give it to my neighbor.

And my neighbor will do it for me for nothing. They love doing those little things, especially the neighbors that I have in areas like Florida and Arizona, because I have a lot of retired neighbors. And they're not doing anything during the day. There's so bored. And so giving them these little things to do, they absolutely love it.

So it's like if I call somebody up and I go, Hey, Shirley, I've got a package coming in for extra toilet paper. Would you mind. Putting it away or would you mind doing this for me? Surely has no problem doing it. I've had them, I leave them keys. I've had them change codes for me when the hubs weren't working correctly or change batteries, I've done all kinds of stuff.

And it's pretty cool because they love doing that stuff. For me, not so much the women, a lot of times the older women have trouble with techie stuff, but the older gentlemen loved to do that because. You know, they just love getting their hands, you know, if they can get a screwdriver out sometimes so that they can be mechanical, they love doing that.

So they love being involved in some part of your business. And you can say, oh, you know, this door isn't working. Right. But I think it's just the batteries. Could you check that for me? They're like, oh yeah, sure. I'll go over there today. You know, and they'll, they'll do it. It's really kind of. Another thing they do for me is they let utility companies.

And so some utility companies like Southwest gas here, they'll go into your properties. If you give them a code, they don't need anyone home and they don't care. But some utility companies do like the cable companies when they're playing with the internet or doing something like that, they have to have somebody who's 18 and above, allow them in and be with them the whole time.

And so it's great to have a good neighbor. Who is there all day long and you could say, Hey, would you mind letting them in and staying there with them until they get the cable connected or the internet to work? I mean, it's super easy. And most older neighbors love to do stuff like that. And you don't have to pay your maintenance guy to come in for an extra call either.

So that's really nice. What was really cool about Jesse was anytime I did something remotely. On the edge or on the cusp of breaking a homeowners association law. Let's just say that sometimes I had like a graveyard in my front yard for like weeks at a time, or maybe we put tents up to have the neighbor kids go through and we would do them.

We would try to do them as close to the holiday as we possibly could. But Jesse was always there. He was like our advocate with the homeowners association and. The kids in the neighborhood and the even teachers across the way. I mean, when we were moving, everybody said, no, no, you can't be selling your house.

You can't be moving. You know, this is, this is the haunted house. This is the, you know, the Halloween house. We know your house at Halloween and Christmas. This is it. It was, you know, kind of sad. But at the same time, we were pushing the boundaries when the holidays came, but we cleaned everything up really fast and made sure that we didn't push them too far, but it was really nice to know.

That we had somebody standing on our side. So when it came to short-term rentals, it's really nice to have another neighbor on your side and a neighbor, especially who lives right next to you because other people always have these negative connotations of short-term rentals that there's going to be loud parties there, or a bunch of cars going in and out.

And it's really no different than having someone there for a long time, except for at one time. When they get there, they're going to be bringing their suitcases in. And when they leave, they'll be bringing their suitcases out. That should be the only weirdness the rest of the comings and goings will be the same as if somebody were to live there.

But it's nice to have an advocate on your side and the nicer you are to your neighbors, the more on your side they will be. And that's what you need. It's great to have an adversary when you're going up against homeowners associations, or even maybe a permit for the county or the city in which you live.

If you've got somebody else besides you on your side saying, well, that's not necessarily true. We live next to Michelle for this long, and this is our experience. Somebody to be there rooting for you and, and on your side, it makes a huge, huge difference. They're also the best narcs. So when my kids were younger and they would be sneaking out, my neighbors were always like, give me me, uh, you know, your daughter just snuck out of the house or your know, your son just knock out.

It's like 2:00 AM Basie, everything too. They hear everything that you don't seem to hear. So it's kind of fun, but they do the same thing for you when you have short-term rentals. So they might make you aware of a. Even before the party gets loud, even before your noise aware, starts working, they'll see a bunch of cars coming and parking at your house and they can warn you even before it starts to get going.

And they can watch out for you. They'll also be able to tell if somebody is trying to sneak a television out of your house, that's not right. You know what I mean? Like Michelle, didn't say that anybody was going to be taking the TV out for repairs. No, they're going to stop a lot of situations before they even get started.

So they'll stop loud parties. They'll stop a bunch of people from going into your property because they know it should be like one, couple or two couples or whatever you tell them. They'll make sure that things aren't getting stolen or taken away from your properties, any kind of strange activity that goes on.

They'll notice it right away. If you have good rapport with them, they'll watch out for you. It's kind of like those scientific studies. Have you guys ever heard that this is real? If somebody were at a coffee shop and they were to get up and go to the bathroom, but they leave their laptops. Their laptop is likely to get stolen if they just leave it there.

But just telling someone, could you just keep an eye on my stuff while I go to the restroom, just asking them to do that one simple thing for you makes them, I forget what the percentage of likelihood is, but they will watch your stuff almost all the time. Like it makes it like a hundred percent of the time.

Nothing of yours will get stolen. Those people become your guard. And they will do that for you just by asking them, whereas they might see somebody else go and take it and go, oh, I think that girl went to the bathroom and she left her stuff and that guy is taking it and they may not be brave enough to do it otherwise.

But just doing this simple asking, could you keep an eye on this? For me, makes them a hundred percent more likely to teach, keep an eye on it for you. And so having your neighbors be your advocates and saying, Hey, would you keep an eye on my property while I'm gone? Would you mind? And then boom, they are on.

They're on it and they will be watching your property. Like, absolutely. I will make sure that I make nothing will happen while I'm on duty. You know, they'll, there'll be more likely to do that. They'll know all these people who are going in and out of your property, but they can also give you names of people.

So I got one of my house cleaners from my neighbor. They always seem to know a maintenance guy or a painter or a landscaper or a pool guy. Or a housekeeper it's really cool. You can get a lot of information from your neighbors. They know a lot of people and it just expands your network of people. So boom.

It just, you know, the growth because you've got their information, your information, and now you've got even more and then they know more people that you don't know, and that broadens it even more. So you've got this huge network of people and the information that they can give you. Is incredible. They can tell you when things are going on in the neighborhood and in the town, because you're not there all the time, most likely.

And they can say, Hey, look, they're talking about short term rentals at the town hall, or they're going to be, I mean, they'll tell you what's going on. And sometimes it will even be before you've heard anything about it. So it's great to have them. They're a great resource of information and a valuable resource when it comes to expanding your network of people.

What's really great about my neighbors too, is they've been a great help, not just to me, but to my guests. Let's say a guest had a car battery that died and their car needed to be. Or you had the hub disconnect from the internet. Something happened in the hub, broke down and you're not able to set your codes correctly.

Your neighbors are right there to help you and they'll help them jump their car. They can help them get a ride someplace. They could say, oh, if you can't get a ride here, The name of the super shuttle. They go right to the airport. They leave every half hour. Here's their number. It's great because they not only help you, but they've helped my guests as well.

And they can help them with things like sugar and eggs too. So let's not forget the little things. Hey, we just need one egg or one cup of sugar and they don't have to run to the store. And when you get back, you can bring them maybe a box of candy or. Wherever you're visiting from. You can bring them a t-shirt like I used to ring Jesse, these really cool t-shirts and he loved those.

I guess the main thing to remember when you're talking to your neighbors is to let them know about the comings and goings of the property who's coming. Who's going when they're going to be there. When they're not going to be there. If you've got maintenance guy ex coming, if you don't let them know, let them be in there.

Listen, don't try to be so private. Well, it's none of their business. It's really great to let them know because when it becomes part of their business, they become way more proactive for you. And they're going to be like your little private 24 hour security guards. They really, really will allow them to be that.

Don't be bothered by so much stuff because people love to be of service to other people. And this way they feel that somehow they're being of service to you. And they really are guys, they're way more of a benefit than they are a hindrance. Allow them to be that for you, let them know your schedule and let them know and be informed about things that are going on with them.

They'll love that and they'll love you for it. And they'll take care. It becomes important information to them and they can make sure that they're telling you something that is not ordinary, something that is out of the ordinary, a car, a vehicle, a person staying somebody, you know, maybe touching your stuff, they'll call the police and make sure that things are double-checked for.

So, let them be a part of all that for you. And while they're being a good neighbor to you, how about you be a good neighbor to them? Make sure you do kind things for them, help them keep up their yard and they're going to help you keep up yours. Make sure you don't have dogs or parties unless you've talked to them about it first and let them have the last.

Because the majority of complaints against neighbors, six out of 10 complaints have to do with noise. And so if your neighbors don't like noise or don't like it past a certain time, be aware of that and make sure your guests are aware of that as well. Make sure you are always, always considerate of your neighbors.

Especially when it comes to noise and animals, you don't want little animals barking or big animals barking. You don't want any animals making noise or going to the bathroom near a neighbor's yard. That's not cool. Right? You want to keep the lines of communication open with them so that they can tell you when people are coming or going, or if there's 20 cars pulled up in front of your house.

So that's information you would probably want to know about. So let them know, look, I don't allow parties, or if you've got one person who says, Hey, look, we just want to have a few people get together. Cause we're having a graduation party. It's right around this time. You've got a big backyard and a pool.

Say, look, I'm letting these people have a few guests over. It shouldn't be more than 20. That's what they told us. They said they would be finished by 10:00 PM. If anything happens, give me a call and I will make sure that I shut it down. That way, they feel like they're more in control. They absolutely love that when you treat them that way, because you let them know that they're important to you, that your relationship with them is extremely important and your neighbors are a really important asset.

So do that for them. Do favors for them, bring gifts to them. Remember the law of retro prosody they're going to want to do for you. Always be polite and respectful to them and actually invite them, you know, to help you out with little decisions, things that you want to do. So if you're thinking about changing the inside color and you're like, I'm going between gray and blue, or I'm going between this couch and this one, invite your neighbor over to help make decisions, especially decisions in the backyard or front yard, something that has to do with.

Let them make some of those decisions too. Or if, you know, you want it between this or that, give them an a or B. I mean, you can make all the decisions really, but let them feel as if they are part of your decision-making process and that will make them feel special. And again, when they feel that way, they're going to take better care of your property because they feel a special kindred spirit.

Right. And remember to deal with any type of challenges that may occur between the two of you in person, don't try to text them. Especially older people. They don't get texts and they never get the context of a text. It almost seems to always come across to them. In a negative way. So you want to communicate with them in person, always, always, always in person, if you have to, and there's no way you can be there, then make sure it's by the phone so that they can hear you and hear your voice.

And there's no room for any kind of misinterpreting. Messages. Okay. Because especially when you're over the miles and with elderly neighbors, they're not used to the type of communication that we are, you know, with our kids going back and forth or even jokes and LOL, they have no idea what all that stuff means.

So make sure you're communicating in-person regardless, always. That's the first rule of thumb. If you can't get there in person. Bye. So those are the reasons and the ways that I keep in contact and keep friendships with my neighbors. I love being close to my neighbors. I love having that personal relationship.

Like I said, that this show was dedicated to Jesse. He was an amazing neighbor. And saved my butt more Halloweens than I care to talk about. But I mean, he would just come rushing over with these big chords and, oh my gosh, what a great, great guy he was and his wife too. She was just beautiful. And so losing him was quite a shock, especially so close to Halloween.

I mean, we couldn't even get through that whole holiday without talking about him every single day and just how much we missed. So moving away, it's, it's really not healed those wounds because we wonder if we'll ever have as close of a relationship with another neighbor as we did. And I think we will, because we like our neighbors, you know, we always want to be friends, but I don't think anybody will take Jesse's place.

Yeah, no one could take Jesse's place in her heart. So this episode was dedicated to Jesse. And I hope you take it all tart. I hope you listen and implement some of the things. I apologize again for having this cold, this head cold. So I probably sound all cloggy and sniffly, but I apologize ahead of time, but I hope that you take this and learn from it because neighbors are amazing assets to have.

And if you can just get past. Society does now and try to get back to those old days where we at we're all much closer to our neighbors. I bet you you'll feel the same way and you'll have the same benefits that I have having great neighbors. I wish that you guys, okay. Now one brought tears to my eyes because he made me remember Jesse.

So that was pretty hard to go through, but it was a great episode, right? Everyone needs to realize that your neighbors are pretty much the biggest asset that you have, and they are your biggest protection against the hos coming after you or the city or something. When you have advocates people on your side, especially the people who live next to your properties.

So I wanted to add in. That one of the ways we get to know neighbors and all these places is the majority of properties I buy. I buy using the burn method, which is buying and rehabbing. Right. And we're going to be making all these repairs. So the majority of properties that we bought. We take and we fix up.

And so I'm there onsite. Every time we fix something up, I love to be a part of the rehab. So while I'm there fixing up, I'm talking to the neighbors and I can tell you that even when my dad and I were flipping houses in Florida, we knew the neighbors, they would bring us over dinner. Like it got to a point where.

They would bring dinner over or bring stuff to us. And it was just, it's an amazing, amazing process. Talk to people, be friendly to people, be like Jesus said, right? So what did Jesus say? Who is your neighbor? Everyone is your neighbor. Everyone is your name. And so really the people who are living next door, your properties, those are the people you want to be kind to.

And if they're a little grumpy at first, don't worry, they'll warm up to you. Just keep bringing stuff over or asking questions or saying, Hey, you know, we're doing this. Do you think you like this or this? And like I said, it doesn't even have to be real decisions. You could have made the decisions yourself, or maybe you're going between those two things.

The point is get them involved and you'll see, there's, there's a huge difference between properties that we have, that we know the neighbors and we work with them and properties that are just, you know, very cold and. The experience that people have are different. They're very different. And you know, when the neighbors see somebody and they know that it's a guess is like, oh, are you staying over?

Oh, you, you know, they'll start talking about us with the people and the people will feel, it just feels warm. It feels more of a personal experience and the guests really feel that. So I want you to know it's a huge, huge asset and ticking off your neighbors. That is literally one of the ways to get everybody in a neighbor.

Against you because you're not there all the time to make amends with people. And you've got to remember that these people, this is their home, 24 7, they're there 365. They're there all the time. You are not, you've got guests going in and out. So you want to feel as much of part of the neighborhood as you possibly.

Can. You want them to know that you, I want to be a part of a neighborhood and you want that personal touch? Because the last thing you want to do is alienate neighbors. They are your goal between they are your number one tool. Cool. When it comes to keeping short-term rentals, Regal is having good relationships with the people around you.

So that's what I wanted to leave you with. Hey, have a great weekend this weekend. God bless you. I wish all of you happiness with all your neighbors. Go and grow.