All right, everybody. So, I finally managed to get out of my car, so thanks to everyone for helping with that. I've got something going on here today, and I wanted to show you, so I'm going to flip this around. Let me just get down here like this. Come with me. I don't know if you can see it, but do you see all that nasty mess? You might remember I had a tree from my neighbor’s yard fall into my backyard and destroy my picnic table.

What I wanted to talk about today is the value of good neighbors. When that tree limb fell, within maybe an hour, my next-door neighbor — not the one with the tree, but the other one — came out and asked if he could help. He got his chainsaw out, cut everything down into pieces, and made it easy for me to throw away. That’s something we could use a lot more of: good neighbors.

Living in a situation with horrible neighbors is no good, and in my time as an agent, I’ve noticed it’s not based on economic factors. People often think if you're in the hood, your neighbors are awful, and if you live in a rich area, your neighbors are great. It’s not that simple. It’s about the people involved. You can live in the nicest neighborhood in St. Louis and still have jerks for neighbors.

Is there a way to avoid having bad neighbors? Well, if you move in first, that’s your only chance of knowing what the neighbors are like. After that, people move in, and you’re stuck with them. So, something to consider before you make an offer: look around when you go to see a house. Sometimes it’s pretty obvious the neighbors might be an issue. If their backyard is trashed and the asking price of the house you’re looking at is low, there might be neighbor problems. No one is going to disclose that their neighbor is a jerk — that’s just not going to happen. But there are signs to watch for.

So, that’s what I have for you today. Check out the neighbors if you’re looking at a house. If the backyard is full of trash, and the people are outside yelling while you’re looking at the house, maybe that’s not the house for you.

Hope you have a great rest of your day, and I’ll see you later.