My old neighbors hate my tenants

[Xavier Garcia]

Hi BP family,

I'm in this weird situation where my old neighbors hate our tenants. We bought a new house less than a year ago and left our little neighborhood that we loved so we can rent out the house. The tenants check out fine on background and credit. They seem nice enough, but I noticed that the wife is a little high strung. Fast forward a few months later and I swing by to fix a lock on the storm door. I stopped by some of the old neighbors only to find out that the new tenants are holding the neighborhood hostage by calling the police on the older gentleman next door because of his dogs barking. They managed to get the city involved and now I think they're going to evict him. They've called the police on a younger couple that had a get together on a weekend in their backyard rather than going and asking them to keep it down. The latest thing, I wake up to a bevy of pictures of fire truck lining the street of the old block because they called the fire department on one of the neighbors that were smoking meats.

It is driving me nuts. They pay their rent on time, even early and the house in decent shape for a tenant living there. I spoke with the husband already and told him to try to be neighborly and this was before the fire truck brigade.

Honestly, I was going to sell the house next year so I can liquidate some of the equity without tax penalties. However, I'd have close to 90-100k if I did it now. I'm in a rough place and I don't know what to do. Is it really my place as a landlord to deal with this stuff? Anything will help, BP. I'm at my wit's end.