Moving into a new home can be scary. No matter the reason for leaving your current spot—whether it’s rising rent, quality of life issues, or something more positive like a new job opportunity—your old home was comfortable and familiar. You knew what the problems were and what to expect each day. A new house is a blank slate.And so is the neighborhood you’re moving into. It might be a charming, friendly stretch that welcomes you like a friend, or it might be a tense, unhappy block that raises your stress levels. Research and surveillance are always good ideas when considering a move to a new neighborhood, but there’s one more step you should always take before signing a lease or buying a place: Ask your potential new neighbors a few crucial questions. The folks who already live in that neighborhood know all the secrets, and a few conversations with them can save you a lot of heartache.How to approach new potential neighborsThose potential new neighbors are strangers right now, of course, so you have to consider how to approach them. No one likes having their doorbell rung by strangers, and it’s easy to sour your future relationship with your neighbors by being intrusive or pushy.The best strategy is a serendipitous approach in public. Since it’s a best practice to visit the neighborhood a few times, at different times of day, to gauge the vibe, noise level, and other factors, you can look for opportunities to chat up residents while you do so. Look for folks working in their yards, hanging out, or walking their dogs, and just introduce yourself as a potential new neighbor, and ask if you can pick their brains about the area. Most people won’t mind answering a few questions—and if they do, that tells you all you need to know about what it might be like living next door to them.What to ask themThere’s only so much you can learn about a neighborhood from observation and research. If you want to know what it’s really like to live there, you need to ask questions that aren’t easily Googled—questions only residents can answer. Here are a few ideas to get you started, depending on what you're curious about:Has there ever been a major disaster, especially a flood? If the current owner of the property didn’t make an insurance claim for some reason, there may be no official record that the house flooded—and the current owner may not want to disclose that the place was a swampy mold factory for a while. But the neighbors will remember.Has the previous owner had endless contractors out to try and solve a problem—like a damp basement or a mysterious roof leak? I have some friends who have been struggling to solve a leaky roof (complicated by a shared roofline owned by several different people) for years without success. So it’s worth it to ask if the current owners are selling because they’ve given up on fixing the problem—and your neighbors will know how many times the contractors have been by.Who’s the problem on the block? People often focus on their immediate neighbors—but sometimes the person who reports everything to the HOA (or calls the police for everything), leaves nasty notes, or trespasses regularly through other people’s yards lives on the other end of the block. Unless you ask, you won’t know until your first encounter with them.What problems do you have in your current home? If you’re moving into a development or a rowhouse situation, ask potential neighbors about problems they have in their home. Houses built at the same time and by the same company will often have similar flaws. If the neighbors can’t cool down their bedroom, have damp basements, or have other complaints about their homes, you’ll likely have the same problems in yours.What's the HOA like? If there’s an HOA, asking about the tenor of the meetings, how often assessments are handed down, and whether the board is crazy (or incompetent) is always prudent. A community can look pristine and peaceful and be a hotbed of animosity and vendettas underneath those flowerbeds.Do you regularly encounter any pests? Ask your potential neighbors if folks regularly battle mice, rats, or other critters (like raccoons) in their basements, yards, or garbage areas. If the answer is yes, find out how long it’s been going on. You might be buying into a rodent war that was lost a long time ago.How is parking handled? Are there regular battles about street parking, blocked driveways, or folks with multiple vehicles taking up all the spaces? Do people resort to passive-aggressive notes and folding chairs left in spaces? Does that one resident think it’s OK to just park in your driveway when they need to?What's the noise like? You can get a sense of whether a neighborhood is noisy by walking around at different times of the day—but you can’t necessarily tell how sound travels inside the houses. Ask the potential neighbors on either side if they can hear what goes on in the house you might occupy. If they could hear the previous tenants, you will hear them.Do you have any trouble getting emergency services? Being outside crowded urban areas has its benefits, but it sometimes comes with difficulty getting emergency services in a timely manner. Ask possible neighbors if ambulances, police, or firetrucks arrive quickly when there’s a problem, or if there’s a routine 45-minute wait (or worse). Another good question to ask? Where’s the closest hospital, and what’s its reputation? If the answers aren’t reassuring, you might want to consider what you’ll do if something terrible happens after you move in.How does garbage pickup work? Do they happen at 2 a.m. and sound like a rocket ship taking off? Do the crews shout at each other and hold loud conversations, or leave a mess behind?What's the local drama? If you’ve ever lived in one place for a while, you know that resentments and grudges can develop into full-on warfare between neighbors. Ask some folks what the wars have been about in your potential new neighborhood—is it parking issues? Garbage out at the wrong times? Noise? Unkempt yards? Knowing what has triggered hostilities and passive-aggressive notes in the past is a warning about what your future will be like.