Alley Denizen

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So Much for Gentrification

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So Much for Gentrification

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Friday, February 18, 2011 3:33:20 PM

The editor has been getting things like this for many years, and has supposed that he is not alone.

Obviously, computer generated. And there must be some hits somewhere in the territory, or these things would stop. Or so it would seem.

The editor wonders if the Annandale tycoon sends these to Georgetown. Even South Arlington is fancy now. Perhaps from his office in a strip mall on Little River Turnpike everything else looks gentrified.

Convention Center 18-Wheel MeltdownAh, Condos!

Unregistered user # Friday, February 18, 2011 6:07:57 PM

Mari writes: I got those things in the first couple of years of buying my house and ignored them. But I wonder what the angle is. When I bought a property in Florida for a steal, I got several letters and post cards from people wanting to buy my house. They wandered into the recycle bin.

Unregistered user # Friday, February 18, 2011 6:19:17 PM

Anonymous writes: I get these as well, but I find nothing problematic about it at all. Yes, it's gentrification. But I like that developers come in, rehab houses, and help housing prices. What is so wrong about a developer trying to find houses to purchase in the area? I'm all for it.

Alley Denizenhaldavitt # Friday, February 18, 2011 6:46:38 PM

I guess after one has rehabbed a house it's just a bit funny to get an offer to buy the place as if it hadn't been fixed. But I guess that a database with that granularity might be expensive.

Nothing wrong with the card, but it does seem a bit too unresearched. I guess the cluelessness of it is what I find interesting.

Unregistered user # Friday, February 18, 2011 6:50:01 PM

Anonymous writes: That makes sense, but the developers clearly aren't that nuanced... it would be just too expensive/time-consuming. They just mass-mail the whole neighborhood. Although I don't want long-time residents being taken advantage of, I fully support anyone who wants to invest money in our area by buying homes and flipping them! The more the merrier as far as I'm concerned. Even if they are a bit blunt and send to houses they shouldn't (yours & mine, for instance), it's absolutely correct that a substantial number of homes are ripe targets for renovation.

Alley Denizenhaldavitt # Friday, February 18, 2011 7:48:57 PM

I'm not sure it's developers. There aren't that many houses on anyone's DIY list around here now, and they are all known by the local real estate types. Any rehabber is dealing with a few houses at most in this territory. (In some neighborhoods elsewhere, maybe you could get a bunch of tear-downs but that needs a real estate type with local knowledge and connections.)

I really do think it's to catch out folks in a bad financial situation, perhaps when they are under pressure and unable to think straight.

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