Encouraging Pride in Ownership or Deception

[Vincent Egan]

I am still new to the world of real estate investing and one of the things I'm doing to make myself get more involved is talk about it. Well this past weekend I was talking with one of my family members about real estate and they told me an interesting story that I thought was worthy of sharing.

My family member told me they bought their first home on the border of Detroit and Dearborn back in the early 90's for $18,000 and shared it with a few of their friends. After a few years and lots of work being put into the house, the house was valued at $46,000 when they started trying to sell it. However, my family member saw that the neighborhood was starting to head in the wrong direction when they saw that some windows were being boarded up down the road and people were letting their lawn and shrubs wither. My relative decided to take some action and help promote the block to help sell their own property. They created a page long document labeled "Streetname Notice" and proceeded to write that Ford was looking to expand into the area and that in the near future homes were going to be re-evaluated for future employee housing (The way it was described to me didn't make much sense). This was not true but my relative was trying to get their neighbors to care more about the appearance of their home so theirs would be easier to sell. Sure enough, soon after they put a notice in everyone's mailbox, my relative saw some steps taken by some of the neighbors to clean up their lawn and spruce up their homes. My family member ended up selling their house at the value they were hoping and they accredit it to that notice.

Personally, I am stuck on what to think of this story. My family member also told me he/she would do their part in helping the image of the neighborhood as well. They told me they would help mow others lawns and plant shrubs and flowers to liven up the block before they planned on selling it. I say this as some sort of defense for my relative because I think they had a real interest in the upkeep of the neighborhood and not just money. I'm curious on other personal thoughts and opinions about this story.