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How many ugly houses do they think Hyde Park has?
By adamg on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 8:06am
Dave Vittorini is a bit put out by all the Ugly Houses signs that recently sprung up in Hyde Park, including this cluster of three on Hyde Park Avenue:
Hey @MassBillboards, #HydePark isn’t full of ugly houses. There is no reason for 8 of the same ad to be in less than a 1/4 mile Wolcott Sq to HPAve/Milton St- We are in the process of celebrating our 150th BDay & this is what people see when they get here. #ClearChannel
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direct marketing
I get these flyers in my mailbox by the handful. Not just this company, but many similar ones. Then tend to market to lower income areas in hopes people will sell for fast cash.
Everyone is off to make a quick buck. These places are flippers.
Ask me how much $ the roommate sunk into new electrical from shoddy construction from a flipper. These places are a joke, buy for pennies on the dollar, do cheap 'upgrades', then flip. Then wash, rinse, repeat.
Wait until you do a probate
My father passed away some years back and when I opened the probate, the floodgates opened wide.
They don't know whether or not the house has a mortgage or if the heirs can cover the note. They know that some people will sell it for the mortgage amount to close the probate and may not know how much the house is really worth if they don't live in the area anymore.
At least they no longer flyer my current neighborhood. That would be silly when realtor friends of mine have call lists for any home that becomes available because there is so little inventory in my area. Been a long time since anyone bothered with signs or open houses, even.
Is it really a bad sign?
I mean, the signs are put up by speculators who want to profit from people who think their houses are worth next to nothing, but on the other hand, in order to profit there has to be a value to the area.
Also, where those signs in particular are put is, well, I mean I love it and everything, but it is an ugly stretch of Hyde Park Ave.
Also, perhaps those signs are meant for commuters from Milton and its hinterlands, along with the riders on the commuter rail. Just saying.
All of this written I will once again point out my fondness for Hyde Park. It's a bit distant for being in Boston, but that gives it its charm.
Yeah, probably
I know, right? That place is a slum.
Bulk buying
It's my impression that a lot of billboards are bought in bulk. If you have a new movie opening, you're not going to drive around the entire US looking for just the right place to buy. Instead you buy a certain quantity of boards in a given area. The picture shown is not how it's supposed to work. You shouldn't have two of the same ad next to each other, let alone 3 of them.
And another thing
I looked on Streetview to see what ads were there at that time. Two of the four in that area were Geico, who seems to advertise on every piece of flat surface in the whole country. I bet, companies like these put in lowball offers to the billboard companies like, "We'll give you $25 a month for any open billboard you don't sell to someone else. If you're all booked this month, that's fine." Sort of like a Priceline for billboards.
Billboards of this variety
Billboards of this variety have been in that area forever. Also flyers frequently posted.
Well ...
One at a time, maybe, but not like a convention of them all at once.
Signed,
Somebody who drives that road on the regular, and who is a weirdo who actually likes the decaying industrial stuff and the giant tire and My Grandma's Coffee Cake and the giant model-train set that is Readville station and driving through that underpass into Wolcott Square that makes you feel like you're entering the 1950s, right down to the two guys watching the world go by from the bench in front of the gas station.
dad joke
Do you promise your kids everytime you pass that place that you are all coming back later and unchaining Grandma from the oven?
All my far flung relatives
get Grandma's Coffee Cake for Christmas, in decorative tins. So far they haven't complained. I just eat the ones from Stop and Shop, right out of the cardboard box. I like that Grandma herself made them right down the street.
Well ...
Do you promise your kids everytime you pass that place that you are all coming back later and unchaining Grandma from the oven?
Oh, man, I never thought of that! Mainly because our typical banter when we pass that place is how one of these days we have to stop in and see what we could buy there. If it's anything like the ice-cream factory in Roslindale (where consumers can buy ice cream, but only in three-gallon tubs), we'd wind up with like a 25-pound coffee cake or something.
If you're serving coffee cake
If you're serving coffee cake and ice cream I'd like an invite please!
Alas, the ice cream is all gone
Eaten almost three years ago.
Who Cares Adam
They paid for the billboards like any other business, maybe it annoys you to look at three of the same ones but there is nothing wrong with them from any other standpoint.
People With Ethics Care
House flippers are the lowest and most villainous scum. Not that any part of the real estate business is clean, but those people are the most disgusting form.
They advertise most places
Not just in so called "low income neighborhoods." I live in JP, my place is small, but worth a lot of money and we get them all the time. I would never sell to these jerks, but if I needed a lot of cash quickly I'm sure they make a convincing offer. No closing costs, no realtors, no inspections, no nothing. Get a check, sign some papers and boom cash in hand. Probably takes a day or two. But F these guys.
How nice would it be if
How nice would it be if Boston had an anti-billboard ordinance? No signage that does not advertise a product or service offered on the premises.
If only Dave had direct
If only Dave had direct access to a high-level politician here instead of having to resort to Twitter.
He’s Michelle Wu’s chief of staff.
Outfront Media
Outfront Media hasn't responded. Sometimes the only way to get a response is through twitter. It works with the T!
Ugly houses
After Keep Hyde Park Beautiful contacted them to let them know many residents were insulted by the number of their billboards and and what they may imply they sent a $250.00 donation. I agree, 4 in one area are too many and i understand there are more in other parts of H.P. Regards, D
p.s. It doesn't matter where you work, or for whom, to express care and concern about our community,
we buy ugly houses
Keep up the good work Dave. These guys are skunks and do nothing to improve the community. They prey on the desperate and now we all have to look at EIGHT of their crappy billboards.