All the above regarding favours is great, but if you find yourself on the receiving end of some twonk power drilling at 9pm when you're trying to get young kids to sleep then you quickly find out how little tolerance you actually have.
I'm lucky in the the previous (10 years ago) owner of our house was a sociopath, in that he painted a huge swastika on the side of the house. So when we bought it, it was a revelation to our new polish and jewish neighbours... They don't mind me working in the driveway but I tend to be considerate. I was talking to our neighbour-but-one about welding and mentioned the trailer I built recently. "Oh, you built that?" he asked. "Um, yup did you not hear the abrasive drop saw or the symphony of angle grinders?"