not sure what you mean by bad neighborhood... The below should be watch out on a link exchange.
1. Linkback page is linked within their site and not orphaned page... robots cannot locate orphaned page.
2. make sure robots.txt does not exclude the link pages or sub directory
3. make sure header does not contain "robots=noindex,nofollow"
4. male sure href link does not contain "rel=nofollow"
5. preferable not linked from a framed page
6. 3 or more way exchange need to take extra caution
FFA or Free For All network are no use at all.. not recommended due to my previous bad experience. Once you submit your site, get ready to receive tons of junk mail... and does not bring result also...
more info on FFA visit -->>>
Free For All link page - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia