A 35-property West Philly portfolio went viral. It’s a glimpse into transactions we don’t see every day.
The months-old listing drew backlash and concern over what a sale like that could do to neighborhoods. It also shows how difficult it is to know how disruptive a bulk sale can be until it's done.
It’s not the typical Zillow or Redfin listing.
For sale: Thirty-five, fully rented homes “centered in the burgeoning Cobbs Creek neighborhood in West Philadelphia.” A closer look at the properties shows rents ranging from $1,100 to $1,500.
Asking price: $7 million.
Described as “a red hot neighborhood with some undervalued rents and significant capital appreciation opportunity.”
The months-old real estate listing advertising a 35-home portfolio in what people read to be a single, primarily Black West Philadelphia neighborhood sparked outrage online. And while it’s difficult to draw conclusions on how disruptive a sale like this could be to West Philadelphia, the listing offers a glimpse into these types of bulk real estate sales and highlights broader public fears about these private transactions.
Here’s what to know.
How did this listing get so much attention?
The listing recently caught the attention of Philadelphia TikTok creator Sierra-Katherine Brooks, who makes content dissecting and often poking fun at properties up for sale. She said the language in the West Philly listing felt coded for “people aren’t paying as much as you could be charging,” so she made a post raising concerns about the large sale.
It went viral with more than 62,000 views and hundreds of concerned comments. Then the British tabloid Daily Mail published a story quoting Brooks’ post with the headline: ‘ENTIRE’ Philadelphia neighborhood goes on sale for $7 MILLION.
While the headline is a mischaracterization of the portfolio — largely due to the vague way the listing was written — it drew a strong backlash to the sale.
How did residents react to being in the news?
Larissa Mogano, cofounder and president of the Cobbs Creek Neighborhoods Association, found the Daily Mail headline to be particularly upsetting because it’s the sort of news that “causes panic among a neighborhood” when offered with little context.
“What people immediately assumed after that is they’re going to raze the entire neighborhood and put in condos and giant apartments,” said Mogano.
To date, she hasn’t heard from any of the residents who rent the homes up for sale.
Is Cobbs Creek up for sale?
No. And while the portfolio’s properties are mostly concentrated in Cobbs Creek, they are spread across other neighborhoods including Carroll Park, Angora, and Kingsessing — though the listings do not say this.
The portfolio’s broader footprint in West Philadelphia doesn’t eliminate many of the concerns raised as a result of the listing’s language.
In a statement, Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier said she worried the listing is another example of “corporate interests treating homes like nothing more than financial assets.”
Gauthier said she planned to meet with the owner of the properties soon.
Who owns these properties?
City records list TPD Real Estate LLC as the owner of the properties. Efforts to reach the company were unsuccessful.
The broker on the listing told Axios the client was selling because they no longer had Philly ties.
How often do sales like this happen?
Emily Dowdall, policy director for Reinvestment Fund policy solutions group, which studies equitable housing in Philadelphia and across the country, has researched these sorts of sales. Last year she helped publish a report that found investors bought nearly a quarter of homes sold in Philadelphia between 2020 and 2021.
She said bulk sales don’t usually end up in the multiple listing service, a database that populates websites like Zillow and Redfin, but they happen.
“Often it’s a cash transaction,” she said. “There’s not a mortgage associated with it, so you also don’t see it in mortgage filings. And so a lot of times these happen sort of out of the public eye.”
Dowdall’s research found the number of investors buying 10 or more properties in Philadelphia peaked in 2016, falling to a low in 2020 and steadily rising since. She said bulk sales like the West Philly listing are still less common than investor purchases made one or a handful at a time.
» READ MORE: Large investors are increasingly buying up homes in Philly. Here’s what that means for owners and renters.
Should residents be worried about these sales?
When trying to make sense of how disruptive a home sale will be to a neighborhood, there’s a lot to factor in, but Dowdall said it’s helpful to consider who is selling and who is buying.
On the surface, the sale of rentals from one investor to another will be less disruptive to a community than wholesalers pressuring homeowners to sell their properties, which is increasingly happening in Philadelphia and other cities. But drawing conclusions on how much of an impact a bulk sale will be on housing stability is difficult without knowing if past owners accepted affordable housing vouchers, kept well-maintained properties, or were frequent evictors. Whether new owners follow suit also plays a role.
Can anything be done to ensure housing stability?
Dowdall said there’s room for government agencies and nonprofits to step in and buy these portfolios or facilitate the sale to a community-based landlord that would ensure quality housing and keep units affordable.
The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority, for example, purchased close to 200 single-family homes from an out-of-town investor in 2021 and offered homeowner education to tenants so they could one day buy the homes.