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October 14, 2021

Mark Zuckerberg buys his neighbours' homes for $30 million

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg came up with a unique but pricey way to ensure his privacy: buy out your surrounding neighbours for $30 million.

Thanks to his $19-billion net worth, the Facebook CEO bought four of his neighbours' homes in San Francisco, but it turns out that a mega mansion isn't in the cards. Instead, the 29-year-old will become a landlord and lease the properties to their previous owners, says the San Jose Mercury News.

It turns out that Zuckerberg only started buying the surrounding properties in December 2012, when he heard a developer was hoping to use the Facebook founders status to help sell the property. The last house was sold on October 1, where he paid $14.5 million for a 2,560-square-foot lot or $5,470 per square foot, according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

Whether you like it or not, the value of your home is affected by your neighbours. If you have a hoarder as a neighbour with an overgrown yard and tons of clutter, it can hurt your home's sale price by five to 10 per cent, President of the Appraisal Institute told Business Insider. This Toronto-couple built themselves a six-foot fence, but let's face it, their home's value will remain lower if their neighbour's junk stays out in the yard.

While registered sex offenders are being rehabilitated, unfortunately they can hurt your home value by about nine per cent and it'll even take 10 per cent longer to sell your home, according to research done by Longwood University.

When you're shopping for a home, whether you like your neighbours or not usually isn't a major consideration. But neighbourhood squabbles over fences, parking issues or junk can lead to some costly and lengthy battles in court.

If you're able to resolve the issue between yourselves, good for you, that's money that stays in your pocket.

If you need a mediator to help you, you could pay between $1,500 to $3,000 for a half- to full-day session, according to MoneySense magazine. This doesn't include your lawyer's fee and the cost of whatever issue you're trying to resolve.

If your issue goes all the way up to the Superior courts, then legal fees can hit $10,000 to $15,000, a Toronto mediator told MoneySense. Don't forget all the time you've spent arguing about the issue.

Do you think your property's value should be affected by your neighbours?

Josephine Lim, MSN Money

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Gordon PowersGordon Powers

A long-time fund company executive, Gordon Powers now heads up the Affinity Group, a financial services consulting firm. Gordon was a personal finance columnist for the Globe & Mail for many years, has taught retirement planning...