Backyard adjacent to a high school fence

[Erinç1]

We are planning to buy a home to be an Airbnb host and its backyard fence is adjacent to a high school football field. I am not sure how busy and noisy it gets during the weekends. Most schools are in distant learning now but things might go full time in the future.

Assuming most guests book for the weekend, little concerned from the noise guests might get bothered from this high school. Any thoughts?

[Pat271]

We rented an Airbnb once with screaming elementary school kids across a narrow street.  Although I feel this should have been disclosed in the listing, the rest of the conditions were top-notch, and the host had just about all 5-stars, with no mention of the school. I did mention it to her in private. So...I think something like this can be overcome with good hosting skills and an otherwise exceptional, clean, pleasant place to stay.

[Ute42]

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@Erinç1   

When You start hosting on airbnb You will soon realise, that there are many guests that are much noisier than a footballfield in full swing.

[Sarah977]

@Erinç1  Many hosts don't understand or shy away from mentioning any warts along with the positives of their property.

Most places have something about them that a guest could perceive as negative, be it the potential for noise, slow Wifi, a 20 minute drive to the nearest grocery store, or that the host also lives on the property and has a dog.

It's important to mention these things in the listing description, so guests know exactly what to expect, and even reiterate them in the message you send to guests when they book in case they glossed over that ( lots of guests don't bother to read the listing info thoroughly).

It's much better to have guests pass on booking your listing for something you mention but have no control over, than to have guests show up and be upset.

At least the football field likely won't be a source of constant noise, nor disturb guests' sleep at night.

[Jennifer1773]

I am a high school teacher and live a half a mile from our school/football field. There is definitely noise heard from my house on Thursday nights (JV football), Friday nights (Varsity football), Saturdays (Local College Football and/or younger pee-wee and midget football groups that use the field). This is usually in the fall, but this year due to COVID our football season is this spring. They also host men's and women's European football (soccer here in the US) on the field on other days and other times of the year. Practices are held almost every week day. The good news is that this is all "happy noise" and always makes me smile--I have never been annoyed by these sounds! As others have suggested, just disclose this in your listing. Maybe you could collaborate with the school to provide season passes for your rental or maybe your fence gives your guests great front row seats to the games that are priceless! You may want to check on parking as our school lots can never hold all game attendees and surrounding areas often have folks parking in yards of private homes and walking to the games... this has been known to frustrate some folks...

[Robin4]

@Erinç1 

I am in exactly the same situation, the rear boundary of our property is shared with our High School oval as per this screenshot. The marking indicator only indicates the area not the actual location of our listing. Our listing is one of those that share a rear fence with the oval

I regard the oval as being a plus rather than a negative. If it was a primary school I may think differently but noise from the oval, except for once a year sports days, is almost nonexistent and I guess the only mild annoyance is the hour that it takes the school ground staff to mow the oval grass once a fortnight. They do however generally mow late morning when guests have already left or about to.

School children only use the oval during teaching breaks and for half an hour at lunch time. They are gone by 3.30 pm and the oval is just a quiet peaceful space to run the dog.

With well over 400 guest stays Erinc, nobody has ever complained about the fact that the oval is there, and I do not even make mention of it in my listing description, so from my point of view I would not put it high on my issue list. Concentrate on other purchase criteria like, how convenient is the property for guests, is there shopping within walking distance, is there a busy noisy road nearby, is there convenient guest parking. Are there any noisy businesses in the area.

The oval should be the least of your problems!

Cheers........Rob

[Jennifer1773]

@Erinç1 @Robin4 

The football field at our high school (near my house) in North Carolina has stands that hold up to 7,000 spectators (30% of that right now due to COVID). Not sure what type of football field that @Erinç1 backs up to? I would recommend contacting the school to find out details of occupancy and frequency of use so that this can be shared with guests--as a positive of course! 

[Robin4]

@Jennifer1773 

Yes I can understand Jennifer, that is a far cry from the oval that I have to deal with, and @Erinç1 is going to have to make that judgement based on how the oval in his neighbourhood is used.

The other thing Jennifer I host in a country town of 36,000 residents and the township has a community oval that is less than 500 meters from my adjacent High School oval and most sporting activity including nighttime training takes place on that oval rather than the one next to me. 

Maybe my situation is not typical and I possibly should have thought about that before I answered Erinc's post. Thanks for bringing that up Jennifer.

Cheers........Rob

[Jennifer1773]

@Robin4  How I love your oval!

I wish ours was more similar... Regardless it is a great space for our students to perform athletically, and only sends out happy noises that make me smile. Strangely we are also a small town with a population of just less than 8,000 (the county is just under 35,000) and so can almost host the whole town in our high school stadium! Sports are a big event around here :).

Nice to chat from the other side of the world!  Jennifer

[Erinç1]

The yellow line would be the fence. Yes, it would be good idea to check the school’s game schedule. But looks like @Robin4 ‘s oval.

 

[Robin4]

@Erinç1 

I understand from that photo your oval is used entirely for local grade baseball matches which would not attract a huge crowd!

Here is poorly constructed multiple image of my adjacent school oval. Our property is the one on the right behind the two gum trees with all the greenery obstructed the iron fence.

Our rear garden does tend  to take over the neighbourhood......

As you can see @Jennifer1773  it is a far cry from your sporting complex. It does get used for local grade cricket matches on the weekend and for 'Little Athletics' on a Friday afternoon during the summer months but neither of these activities impact on the peacefully of our surrounds.

The wonderful thing about the CC is it does bring us together from around the world so that we can learn a bit about each others lifestyles.

Cheers........Rob

[Erinç1]

I am also worried about any events might this field hold. That is something I need to check with locals.

[Helen427]

@Erinç1 @Robin4 @Jennifer1773 @Ute42 

When I hosted English language school students of all ages, we were in a property that had a school on the boundary.

There was a constant noise of children during the day at morning, lunch and afternoon breaks, often after school with sports & on Saturdays during the day and blissfully peaceful when they weren't there.

Definitely disclose you will have a school on the boundary line and perhaps include you may hear the noise of the school children when they are undertaking exercise outdoors as children do.

It was a bonus to be able to zip through the fence for guests to stroll around the school, kick a ball and enjoy a large backyard  to play around on!

Perfect for those who enjoy a run around, including for those with dogs!

One of my fondest memories was of 2 young children from Thailand walking around the school grounds chatting like they had known each other a lifetime despite having just meet and having being terribly homesick in the first couple of days which soon disappeared.

All the best and remember to emphasis the positive @Erinç1 !

[Virgil64]

We had a similar situation with the yard behind the school when I was studying. I was really worried about this situation. After school I went to university and for several years I was preparing to become a nurse. I even wrote various writing assignments using https://writix.co.uk/nursing-essay-writing-service that helped me learn. The situation with the schoolyard has now been resolved as far as I understand from the news.