of course it can succumb easy to bright light and water. the fact i found and easy way to eradicate scarlet trumpet vine, blood meal, simple as that, speaks volumes. people gripe about trumpet vine almost as much as ivy. trumpet vine, campesis radicans, makes a great bonsai, as does ivy. ivy dies easy, too much light and it's a goner, too much water it has no hope, same with over drying. So potted plants are not much to fear in terms of invasive potential, here, it is the yard plants that are the concern, root potential is increased and plants have plenty of room too frolic. Really who wants to spend the money on removal or a city ticket for blight. Rats are something that no one wants around, from lassa virus in africa to plague here in the states some of the worst diseases are rodenta spread. The Native Americans had a problem with rats that led to a bad virus years ago, on reservations. With rats come warfin based chemicals, snakes, strays looking for a snack and other wild life and chemicals that equals a bad mess. Here we have rattlesnakes that get as big enough to eat prarie dogs. While the snakes can be rustled and cooked up, taking a stroll on a bike to capture photos of places that do not belong to you, it could cost you your life by the bite of a big fat rattler, that could be longer than you are tall. We don't see rats here and field mice don't last long. It's buzzards and snakes, gophers and ground hogs where termites and wood boring beetles are more threats to homes and trees than ivy ever could be. People do not always realize the danger, size and longevity of snakes. Killer bee's could just enjoy the heck outa ivy as well as they do public trash cans here. You see more cactus and scrub trees here than you ever will ivy. Trumpet vine struggles here, but with proper watering, thrives, which is amazing. Rabies pops up occasionally from the strange rodents and wild canines. So, really, griping about neighbor's ivy is comical to me, even cute. Here you watch where you walk and listen for the rattle and don't gripe about neighbor because they might be the very people who warn you about the snakes or tell ya to watch out for the buzzard. Ya'll crack me up. Thanks for starting the thread, it's great.

I have settled family estates and I can attest that as soon as a property appears to part of an estate that it brings out a cadre of people who must have all watched the same late-night infomercial about making a killing in real estate by buying property in probate. These buyers are not really looking to pay a fair amount, they just are hoping to find a situation where the the estate's/seller's urgency overrides any interest in getting the best price. It's not bad faith, just a different sub-set of intentions. But I am also wondering if having the property occupied by non-onwers might be part of the problem. Perhaps the house doesn't show well with tenant's stuff in it, or it looks a bit run-down, or has odd smells, or something, that aren't visisble to you. And perhaps, too, propspective owners are worried about how they would get vacant posession, if that's the market you're looking at. Perhaps more info needs to be conveyed about the status of the tenancies in place to make it clear. Sellers of owner-occupied single family homes go to great lengths to de-clutter, spiff up and put the house in the best possible light for sale because they have a direct interest in the results. Tenants may not have as much motivation. Sometimes they can be motivated by some additional financial incentives, sometimes not. And because in many areas this a subsiding market situation, you would do well to get a more-current appraisal, or at least re-review the most recent comps before adjusting your price. HTH, Molly~

I lived in a ballroom for five years. It was part of an 1820 addition to a 1770's coaching inn in New England. The ballroom was 40' long by 20' wide, with a 16' high barrel vaulted ceiling. Lots of windows. Gorgeous honey-brown hemlock floor. Narrow kitchen and bath tucked in on one long side. Massive crown molding where the walls started to curve into the ceiling--made a ledge that my cats would perch on. Fireplace at each end. I loved living there. Watching the sunlight come in the windows at the east end in the morning and stretch all the way to the far wall 40' away, lighting up the floorboards. The mellow old brick wall at one end--originally the exterior of the inn, until the addition was put on. The space. The light. The openness. I'll admit, the first night in such a large space with the ceiling so high overhead was a bit odd. I felt sort of unprotected. But that feeling vanished very quickly. The building was brick, so not drafty. The landlord had put in modern, energy efficient windows and added a ton of insulation to the ceiling, as well as putting in a special energy efficient heating system, so it was not as bad to heat as I was afraid it would be. The big problem was the floor, which was, back in it's early days, some kind of special "sprung" flooring, with a bit of give for dancing. By the time I lived there, it creaked. Everywhere. Even when my cats walked on it. I put down area rugs everywhere, mostly to define living spaces, but also for the benefit of the tenants below me. Not that the rugs helped much. The other apartments were much more chopped up into little rooms, that would have been bedrooms and dining rooms and parlors in the original inn. One had the original kitchen fireplace, big enough for people to stand in, with bread ovens on the side. One had a cute little corner chimney, with shelves built-in over the fireplace. The building was L-shaped, with a kind of a courtyard in the back, where you could barely hear the traffic noise. Coming home after a hectic day's work, it was like entering a quieter time and place. I had always thought that I didn't like open-plan houses. What that apartment taught me was that I did like open-plan living spaces. What I don't like are open-plan kitchens. I loved the fact that the kitchen was in its own room, not visible from the rest of the space. I could leave dishes in the sink without feeling like I had to jump up and clean them. Cooking smells didn't permeate the entire space. I left there when I finished grad school and moved back closer to family. But I still miss it.

My Realtor won't do it and the large firm she works for has a policy against it, although these listings show up on their site because of the MLS. She says it's unfair because it bumps Legitimate price reductions down the list. The same with taking the property off for a day or two and relisting it as a "New Listing" continually. It bumps legitimate New Listings down the list. Her firm will not list something as "New" unless there was a certain minimum period where the house was off the market. Some people track by New Properties and watch the Reductions and that's why it's unfair to the legitimate ones on the list. I had an offer (which expired) on a house that did both of these things for over a year.(after my offer was rejected or expired) It was really annoying to see it keep showing up in my searches right at the top. Not because I was annoyed because I didn't get the house, but because I thought it was a "cheap" practice.