Rita Ritter almost didn’t see the dilapidated Victorian house on Perkiomen Avenue in Reading, Pa. “It was surrounded by mulberry trees and bushes,” she said. “It was a gem waiting to be polished.” The house had been vacant for years, and water had leaked through three floors. Ritter uprooted poison ivy and “rehabbed, rewired” everything; $50,000 later, the slate roof has been patched and collapsed plaster walls have been rebuilt.