Stressed that noisy neighbors will ruin my investment

[Noah Harper]

My wife and I purchased our first property last August in a suburb of Denver. I am active duty military stationed here for 2 years (2021-23). We were able to buy a single family house using the VA loan, and planned to fix it up (nothing crazy) while living in it for the 2 years we were here, then use it as a rental property. The decision to buy this house, as well as the research that went into it, was made with this vision in mind. Everything has been going smoothly, except for one thing… our next-door neighbors.

Overall, we have a pretty good relationship with our neighbors. They are generally respectful, except that they have frequent religious/spiritual ceremonies outside, and at night. They are Native American, and these ceremonies often include drumming and singing. We have no problem with them exercising their religious freedom; we just have a problem with when they do it. Generally, they drum and sing twice a week and it ends around 10:30-11:30 PM. Recently, it has been going much later. On two occasions, they even went until sunrise. As our bedrooms face our neighbor’s backyard, these activities frequently affect our ability to sleep. Our neighbors do other things, including parking cars on sidewalk and in yard, big fires, unpermitted structures in back yard, etc., that other people may care about, but honestly, we just care about the noise at night.

Obviously, the first thing I did was talk to them. Our conversations have been respectful on both sides, but ultimately, yielded no solution. They believe that they have the right to do what they do because of their heritage and right to religious freedom, and I believe that they have those rights, just not the right to do it at all hours of the night.

There is no HOA, or even a noise ordinance in our city. Other neighbors have been calling the police on them for years, but the cops do not really do anything. It is so bad that at least two houses on the block have been sold solely because of this problem (i.e., the owners could not deal with it any longer). In fact, one of those houses was the one we bought, which leads to my first question.

• 1) Were the sellers legally required to disclose this nuisance to us (the buyers)? And would we have to disclose, if we decided to sell? I have read conflicting information online, and my real estate agent believes that they were not required to, nor that we would be required to in the future. We bought (and would sell) "as is," if that helps.
• 2) Does anyone have any ideas for a solution, assuming that the issue cannot be solved with conversation between neighbors? I have considered, but not yet employed, the following ideas: sound proofing (window inserts, noise reduction curtains, etc.), bringing this to the attention of city council in hopes of a noise ordinance with consequences, and civil action, which would be my last resort.

Regardless of the legality of disclosing this information or not to a potential buyer or tenant, my wife and I do not want to put others in the situation we are in now. I am not willing to lose everything over my conscience, but I am willing to let the ROI take a hit by adhering to my principles. If we did disclose this nuisance…

• 3) How much harder would it be for us to get a good tenant in the house?
• 4) How much harder would it be for us to sell the house?

We are extremely stressed about this. We have even gone so far as starting to consider cutting our losses (or minimizing our gains), by listing the house for sale immediately and finding a place to rent. The uncertainty of the market is an added stressor, but is not driving the decision. Any help would be appreciated. This is a tough lesson to learn. We all know location is the most important aspect of any real estate investment, but I did not consider that this problem was in the realm of possibilities. Besides this issue, the location and house in general is everything we had hoped and planned for.

If this is not the appropriate forum, please let me know.