I have bad luck with neighbors.... The neighbor I used to have in my old apartment used to beat his wife. That was fun hearing screams at 3am followed by slapping then a solid thud, always having to go over there telling him to stop it "stop what???" then having to call the cops... Then my neighbor on the other side must have been a nymphomaniac, which normally wouldn't be a bad thing but was excessively loud about it.

The neighbor I have now sucks, last year he decided to stain his deck and fence with a power sprayer. He was very careful to cover everything in HIS yard nicely and neatly with plastic (these are townhomes) but seemed to be oblivious to my yard or the things in it, needless to say he got overspray all over my deck (which is not stained just wood) and all my wood deck furniture. When I asked him about it he said "no habla engles".... great...

Then I just found out that some guy living directly behind me got sick of his wife and shot her in the head on Tuesday.

So yes I have to agree with your sentiment that neighbours/neighbors really are a bad idea.