New couple to Charlotte: How do you meet people? (Highlands: daycare, neighborhoods)

[MJPost32]

I am pretty impressed you knocked on neighbor's doors. Are you from the south? I just can't imagine that and I live up north so I am guessing that is why. I would be scared if some stranger was knocking at my door now I wouldn't open it up. I guess I will have to get use to the friendly neighbors which I want don't get me wrong!

What development are you in?

[berryjuice4life]

MJ i was thinking the same thing, I know people tell us we should knock and talk to people in a particular in the development we are interested in buying but OMG me who talks to everyone cant imagine myself knocking on doors...LOL

[MJPost32]

Ha..I figure we would would agree! I talk to everyone too and never would I do that! It's so funny becuase we are also getting a state of the art security system. I don't live in a bad area at all now but we keep our doors closed, locked and the alarm on!!!

I feel bad for my neighbors that are going to knock on my door and my alarm will probably go off!

[lovesMountains]

Originally Posted by neoflex

You can do what my wife and I did this weekend when we went down for our pre-drywall inspection. We walked around the neighborhood a little bit and just knocked on random doors introducing ourselves as their soon to be neighbors. We were very surprised at how many people invited us in and we ended up having conversations that on average lasted no less than 45 minutes. Many people were like "When you guys move in, feel free to come by or if you need help moving in feel free to let us know." It was very reassuring as we were feeling a little uneasy about our community and our builder. We came home feeling a little more confident about our decision. Plus the inspection went great and the inspector was only able to find tiny little things that he said were really no big deal at all.

Welcome to the south This really IS how we treat our neighbors!

[neoflex]

Originally Posted by MJPost32

I am pretty impressed you knocked on neighbor's doors. Are you from the south? I just can't imagine that and I live up north so I am guessing that is why. I would be scared if some stranger was knocking at my door now I wouldn't open it up. I guess I will have to get use to the friendly neighbors which I want don't get me wrong!

What development are you in?

No, we are not from the south believe it or not. We were both born and raised on Long Island. The main reason why we did this is because we did not have too much time down there this weekend and we were really curious as to who we had living in our neighborhood and wanted the perspective of someone living there and at least meet our immediate neighbors. Like they say, you can pick your house but not your neighbors. Honestly, we would prob normally not do this but we were uneasy about a few things about the builder and a couple things others have said they heard about the neighborhood so we needed to know whether or not we needed to try and wiggle out of our contract and start looking for a new home or proceed as planned. If the neighbors feedback was not positive we had planned to go and look back in St Johns Forst and Cutis Pond in Mooresville, but too be honest going around and meeting the neighbors was the best thing for us. We were feeling pretty chitty at first and than after talking to numerous neighbors we were happy and decided we would proceed as scheduled. Plus we met a bunch of great people and we look forward to living in the same neighborhood.
My wife was leary at first and stayed in the car for the first one.

[lovesMountains]

Originally Posted by neoflex

No, we are not from the south believe it or not. We were both born and raised on Long Island. The main reason why we did this is because we did not have too much time down there this weekend and we were really curious as to who we had living in our neighborhood and wanted the perspective of someone living there and at least meet our immediate neighbors. Like they say, you can pick your house but not your neighbors. Honestly, we would prob normally not do this but we were uneasy about a few things about the builder and a couple things others have said they heard about the neighborhood so we needed to know whether or not we needed to try and wiggle out of our contract and start looking for a new home or proceed as planned. To be honest this was the best thing for us. We were feeling pretty chitty at first and than after talking to numerous neighbors we were happy and decided we would proceed as scheduled. Plus we met a bunch of great people and we look forward to living in the same neighborhood.
My wife was leary at first and stayed in the car for the first one.

My point was not that you summoned the courage to knock on doors, but that when you did the people there opened them and engaged you in lengthy conversations - that's how we do it in the south We talk to our neighbors, what a concept! Seriously, I have heard from many people from other parts of the country that when they first got here they thought all the neighborliness was weird. They felt suspicious of why people would talk to them. Now they understand it and have become this way themselves!

[neoflex]

Originally Posted by lovesMountains

My point was not that you summoned the courage to knock on doors, but that when you did the people there opened them and engaged you in lengthy conversations - that's how we do it in the south We talk to our neighbors, what a concept! Seriously, I have heard from many people from other parts of the country that when they first got here they thought all the neighborliness was weird. They felt suspicious of why people would talk to them. Now they understand it and have become this way themselves!

I absolutly love it. It will be nice to see a neighbor outside and just be able to say "Hey, wanna come over for a beer?" I'm hoping the nighborhood will be tighter knit too, where as if your not home and someone see something suspicious they will check it out for you rather than pretend they do not see it or have the occasional summertime barbeque.
It will be nice because here in NY most people when they see their neighbors usually won't even acknowlege them let alone have a conversation.

[Mr.Sippi]

We knocked on our neighbors door before we bought our house. Wanted to ask them some questions about crime, noise, etc... (yeah, we;ve already been burglarized, lol). I cant imagine living somewhere where i wouldn't want to knock on a neighbors door. I just dont get that.

Originally Posted by MJPost32

I am pretty impressed you knocked on neighbor's doors. Are you from the south? I just can't imagine that and I live up north so I am guessing that is why. I would be scared if some stranger was knocking at my door now I wouldn't open it up. I guess I will have to get use to the friendly neighbors which I want don't get me wrong!

What development are you in?

[MJPost32]

Yeah I guess to each their own! I won't be doing it! I figure I will meet some peopel at the pool in the summer and other organizations that I join.

I don't think I will ever be comfortable letting people in my home that I don't know though. I don't mean to be a northern snob by any means but we have some valuable things inlcuding us!!!

Neolfex..I now remember you talking about your development and yes definitely in your case I probably would have wanted to do the same thing! I was lucky to find some people on this board that were building in St. John's! We just did our preconstruction meeting on the phone and it went well so I am very hopeful once again that we will like it!

[neoflex]

Originally Posted by Mr.Sippi

We knocked on our neighbors door before we bought our house. Wanted to ask them some questions about crime, noise, etc... (yeah, we;ve already been burglarized, lol). I cant imagine living somewhere where i wouldn't want to knock on a neighbors door. I just dont get that.

Ouch! Where do you guys live? What did they steal? Did they totally clean you guys out or were they just looking for money and jewelry?