I've been targeted by a postcard mailer. I won't sell. Thoughts on engaging anyway?

[Kenneth Westervelt]

So I live in one of the cheaper neighborhoods of Aurora, CO.  One guy has been mailing me "Will take in any condition!" postcards for a few months now. I have no intent to sell, and the prospective buyer (a RE broker) lives about 10 miles west of me.

Here's the thing: the photo he used for the front of my house is 4 years old. It's very obvious that my landscaping was under construction at the time of the picture. On one hand, I am annoyed he isn't bothering to update their records. I want to yell at him that if he's going to offer to buy my property, at least have post-pandemic photos. The waste and mental load of throwing away postcards is small - but it's real.

On the other hand, I wish there were ways to engage this guy in a way that would be to my advantage. I just have a complete failure of imagination of what this might look like. My frustration is clouding my judgement.

How would you deal with this situation?

[Account Closed]

Quote from @Kenneth Westervelt:

So I live in one of the cheaper neighborhoods of Aurora, CO.  One guy has been mailing me "Will take in any condition!" postcards for a few months now. I have no intent to sell, and the prospective buyer (a RE broker) lives about 10 miles west of me.

Here's the thing: the photo he used for the front of my house is 4 years old. It's very obvious that my landscaping was under construction at the time of the picture. On one hand, I am annoyed he isn't bothering to update their records. I want to yell at him that if he's going to offer to buy my property, at least have post-pandemic photos. The waste and mental load of throwing away postcards is small - but it's real.

On the other hand, I wish there were ways to engage this guy in a way that would be to my advantage. I just have a complete failure of imagination of what this might look like. My frustration is clouding my judgement.

How would you deal with this situation?

Very odd response to a simple annoyance.

You can call him and ask him to please remove you from his mailing list. He will do so and he isn't doing anything illegal.

He is having a company produce the mailers and he has no control over the image used. He has never been by your house. The post card company is using the google image from the last time the google car drove down your street.
And most importantly, he has no clue, who you are.

He has sent out a minimum of 5,000 random post cards, costing $5,000 probably more, and he talks to whomever calls him. Out of 5,000 post cards, he will get maybe 5 phone calls. 4 of which are to take them off of the mailing list. But, the one person who does want to sell, saves $20,000 in real estate agent fees along with $10,000 in repairs and saves the uncertainty of how long it will take to sell on the MLS.

He then fixes up the property and sells it and makes maybe $30,000 and sends out another mailer that costs $1 a piece to send out. Again, he doesn't have a clue who you are and only cares if you are that one guy who wants to save a lot of money, if you want to sell and not have to pay a real estate agent.

Do you also get upset when Wendy's Burgers sends you an ad that says "come buy our burger and save $.50, we have no idea who you are, we don't particulary care who you are, but we want to sell you hamburgers that aren't actually ham, they are beef"?

It’s an interesting world and you are one that makes it so.