Cut tree branches piled against the wooden exterior fence — Branches and cut limbs piled against the exterior fence.

Exterior fence & landscaping

Landscaping

Bare dirt strip along the brick building wall where shrubs are missing, marked with arrows — Bare ground along the building where shrubbery has not been replaced.

Night view of the parking lot fence line, arrows marking spots where trees were never replaced — Along the fence line: trees planted when the building was built, never replaced.

These photos show the east and west sides of the parking lot. Shrubbery and landscaping around the building have been ignored. Shrubs along the building wall have not been replaced, and bare dirt is what is left. Along the fence line, trees originally planted when the building was built have not been replaced either.

On its own, this is relatively insignificant. A building can survive without landscaping. Replacing what is missing would likely cost about $15,000 to $25,000, money that could simply be added to the debt. But when you pay a large sum of money for a home here, you hope that the owners, collectively, can at least maintain the shrubbery.

Dying trees and shrubs that no one tends are symptomatic of much larger problems. If you are looking to invest, or looking for a place to call home, and the board cannot even maintain shrubbery and trees, you can infer it is a clear indication of significant problems.

Deteriorating surrounding fence

Walk the fence line that surrounds the property and the story tells itself. This fence has been repaired over and over, and it is still deteriorating. Sections routinely separate in various places along the line and have to be reconnected, again and again. Piecemeal fixes like these read as decline from the street. In one area there has been what appears to be arson.

Replacing the fence would likely cost about $75,000, another sum that could simply be added to the debt. Like the landscaping, none of this requires immediate action. But it is one more indicator of the decay, deterioration, and neglect that is evident right now, and it is only getting cumulatively worse.

Weathered fence boards with a broken, split board leaving a gap at the bottom — A broken, split board in the surrounding fence.

Weathered fence panels leaning and warped along the property line — Fence panels leaning and warping along the property line.