Can I decline a staged neighbour welcome during house viewings without sounding hostile?
Neighbours“Could you all be outside with coffee at eleven?” my neighbour asked. “The buyers would see how friendly the place is.”
He is selling his house and has arranged a Saturday viewing. He wants three nearby households to gather at the front as though we happened to be chatting. We usually wave and occasionally stop for a conversation. We don't have a weekly coffee gathering.
I said I would happily say hello if I was outside, but didn't want to play a scene. He replied, “You're making it sound dishonest. It's just showing our best side.”
I like him and hope the sale goes smoothly. I also have plans that morning, and I don't want potential neighbours to buy an expectation of regular social time that we aren't offering. Nobody has asked me to lie in words; the arrangement itself is what bothers me.
Would it be kinder to turn it into a genuine invitation the buyers know was arranged, or simply decline? I don't want my absence to look like a warning about the street when it is really about a staged welcome.