Can Your Neighbor’s Trump Flag Lower Your Property Value?

Chances are you’ll not have bought that “Make America Great Again” sign posted up in your next-door neighbor’s lawn, but in the event you’re trying to sell your home soon, you could possibly find yourself paying for it.

“We live in a particularly charged political environment,” says Robert Elson, an agent with Coldwell Banker Warburg. And proximity to neighbors with unfettered political beliefs — be it Democrat, Republican or otherwise — can shrink your pool of prospective offers, he says.

A fast scroll through Reddit confirms Elson’s sentiments. “I actually have absolutely passed on a house because I used to be concerned in regards to the neighbor’s political flags,” one Redditor wrote in a June thread.

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In the same thread three years back, a commenter says they “distinctly recall pulling as much as a house with a Blue Lives Matter flag flying round the corner and [telling] my realtor to simply turn back around.”

While these accounts are anecdotal, real estate agents say alienating a significant slice of your buyer pool can result in real challenges: longer time available on the market, fewer offers and, eventually, a price cut.

At a time when most Americans feel fatigued by the present political climate and, often, financially strained, that’s no small matter.

How your neighbors (and their politics) impact your private home value

The precise financial impact of a neighbor’s divisive political sign is difficult to pin down. A “bad neighbor” — one with an unkempt yard, loud music or pesky animals, for instance, can reduce your private home’s value by 5 to 10%, in accordance with the Appraisal Institute. There isn’t hard data regarding a neighbor’s political decor specifically, but real estate pros say it could have the same effect.

“It will possibly greatly impact the property’s value, unfortunately,” says Sean Adu-Gyamfi, an actual estate broker with Coldwell Banker Warburg. “The homebuying process is incredibly emotional, and buyers need to know their neighbors don’t have extreme views or have values which will differ from them.”

Large, garish or particularly divisive signs — confederate flags, as an example, or signs with vulgar language — might be especially difficult for buyers and sellers to contend with. The identical goes for signs that broadcast a political stance in direct opposition to the overall leanings of the community.

“In case you’re a staunch Republican in a largely liberal area, or vice versa, then a neighbor’s sign is perhaps a turnoff,” says Maureen McDermott, an actual estate agent with Sotheby’s International Realty. “I would not have said this 10 years ago, however the political climate within the U.S. has modified and it may well now impact major decisions. Some might determine not to purchase a house in an area where their neighbor is perhaps ‘on the opposite team.’”

McDermott says she’s had clients on either side of the aisle refuse to live round the corner to supporters of certain candidates. Susan Thayer, an agent with The Thayer Group, has had similar experiences.

“It’s hard to maintain a buyer on the right track during their viewing when there could also be a political sign or item that triggers emotion,” Thayer says. “I actually have personally taken buyers to homes that had a round the corner neighbor’s home decorated with ‘XYZ for president’ banners. They were affected during your complete home tour, repeating time and again in regards to the neighbors they’d not prefer to live next to.”

Ultimately, agents say, a neighbor’s provocative signs could cause a house to take a seat available on the market longer. This may lead to lower-priced offers and even an eventual price reduction, netting fewer proceeds for the vendor. For context, data from Zillow shows that just two extra months available on the market could cause a 5% reduction in sale price — or on today’s median-priced home, the lack of about $20,650.

Must you sell your home in an election season?

Election season tends to bring uncertainty, which might make people hesitant to drag the trigger on big financial decisions (including buying or selling real estate). Fortunately, experts say, that hesitancy is basically misguided — even when the political signs in your neighbor’s yard are causing you some concern.

“While the standard wisdom is that an election 12 months is a foul time to sell a house, the information really doesn’t back that up,” McDermott says. “Going back to the Reagan years, you may see home values appreciating at higher rates during election years, specifically since 2012.”

Pricing downturns have occurred in some election years, but those instances are rare and typically align with broader economic trends. In 2008, the actual estate market was on the tail-end of the housing market crash, which itself was part of a bigger financial crisis. In 1992, the country was just beginning to get better from a recession.

“People buy homes based upon need and desire and what politician wins or loses must have little or no impact for the overwhelming majority of homebuyers,” says Mason Whitehead, branch manager at Churchill Mortgage. (Heavily political markets like Washington, D.C. could be the exception, he says).

In case you do opt to sell your private home this 12 months and your neighbor’s questionable front-yard decor is stressing you out, it is perhaps value talking to them about your concerns. And even in the event that they’re unsympathetic, try to not get discouraged, McDermott advises.

“A house truly sells on its merits,” he says. “In case you do the best things when it comes to staging and marketing the house well, then you definitely shouldn’t have a significant issue.”