The 60-Year-Old Real-Estate Agent Giving History Lessons on Instagram

August 21, 2026 - 12:28

Most real estate agents use Instagram to show off open houses and glossy kitchen remodels. Jamie Peva, a 60-year-old agent working in Georgetown, does something different. His feed is less about square footage and more about the stories buried in the neighborhood's old sidewalks, faded storefronts, and forgotten alleyways.

Peva started posting a few years ago, not with a marketing strategy, but with a simple curiosity about the buildings he walked past every day. He began digging into old city directories, library archives, and century-old newspapers. What he found were tales of immigrant families running corner groceries, a fire that reshaped a whole block in the 1920s, and the origins of a local diner that everyone assumed had always been there. Now, his short video clips and photo posts read like mini history lessons, often drawing thousands of comments from longtime residents and younger transplants who had no idea what used to stand where they now grab coffee.

He says the response surprised him. People are hungry for a sense of place, especially in a city that changes so fast. His posts rarely mention a listing. Instead, he will show a faded brick wall and explain who built it and why it has those odd metal hooks still sticking out. Sometimes he gets tips from viewers who remember their grandparents talking about a particular shop. Other times, he corrects his own mistakes when someone sends in a clearer photo or a family record.

The approach has quietly made him a local figure, but he insists it is not a trick to sell houses. He just thinks a neighborhood is worth more when you know what happened there. And if that makes people look at a for-sale sign a little differently, so be it.