A House For A Hundred?

[Dion]

A man living north of Cayley has come up with an interesting method of "selling" his home.

Rick Harbidge has decided to host a sort of competition with the prize being his 2,282 square foot log home.

"I built it myself," says Harbidge "It's really quite beautiful, gorgeous view of the mountains, just north of Cayley."

Harbidge says they've decided to move into High River because of how much work the 3.69-acre property needs and with the housing market being the way it is he has to get creative with selling the home.

The tickets to enter the contest are $100 per person and the contest is rather simple, you answer a pair of questions then a set of judges will look at your answer and decide who will win the home.

"We've picked out three judges to choose the winner of the home, they will decide who answered the questions the best."

He kept the questions simple.

What would you do with the property?
Why do you want the property?

https://www.highriveronline.com/loca...-for-a-hundred

https://highriver.hellogoodbuy.ca/listings/115556

You can also email loghomecontest@gmail.com for contest rules and details.

[Caged Great]

Unrelated story time that has a personal connection.

My parents once bought a house for $1. There was nothing wrong with it or anything. It was a bizarre scenario. It ended up playing a decent role in an unrelated situation in my youth with my family that resulted in a law in Canada that gave people with mental impairment more civil rights (freedom to choose for themselves) to be enacted, and it was crucial that that second properly was available. It was a very weird situation.

[Snuffleupagus]

Didn't some lady do this a couple of years ago?

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Ok so after reading the rules, they’re selling it for $520k. The contest is void if they don’t get min 5200 entries. If they don’t get that many, or sell the house on the open market before that, then the contest is void and $95 is returned to each applicant. $5 kept for admin fee.

If they are short but close to the $520k they’ll give the winner the option to pay the shortfall.

Not sure what “short but close means”. Say they get 4000 entries. That’s not close imo. They’d keep 4000x$5. That’s a cool $20k. More than enough to cover the cost of legal fees and returning the $95 to 4000 people. Nice way to make a few bucks without actually offering anything real.

[stang]

What the legality of this?

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by stang

What the legality of this?

I don't get that either. It's basically a private, non-charitable lottery. I know sweepstakes are allowed with a license, but big companies with good lawyers always have a no-purchase-necessary option.

Maybe this is technically a writing contest or something? I guess if there isn't a draw maybe that's allowed.

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Didn't some lady do this a couple of years ago?

Yes, and I believe she received around 7% of the entries needed to reach her asking price. Now in the process of refunding the 4000 that submitted, but overwhelmed by the work it involves. I’m curious what she would have done had she received 40,000 entries and still needed to refund.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5810620/m...eaway-contest/

As much as people complained about the interior of the home in The Millarville giveaway, it was a small enough entry fee and a decent house for some people to give it a try. And close enough to the city.

$100 though for the Cayley giveaway??

You would think buy as many as you want $1 entry tickets, with the money going to some charity should not enough be raised, would have a the highest likelihood of success in these home giveaways. I’m guessing the legal complications in that format would be endless though.

[Canadianman]

This is basically a scam. I don't understand why they let that other lady try it earlier and I don't understand why they are allowing it to happen again

[Amethyst]

I think (based on what I heard about the earlier one) is that the writing is part of it so that it's not considered a lottery.

It doesn't seem like it will be successful. $100 is too much to just throw away and are there really 5000+ people who would want the property? The new owners will have to deal with all the work that is too much for the current owners.

And keeping a $5 fee seems totally wrong. It's not my problem as a potential entrant that YOU the seller did not do your job well enough to get the required number of entries. Seems sketchy all around.

[Fuzz]

Ya, a log house is a ton of work on it's own, never mind the acreage. It takes a special person to want to deal with one of those.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I don't get that either. It's basically a private, non-charitable lottery. I know sweepstakes are allowed with a license, but big companies with good lawyers always have a no-purchase-necessary option.

Maybe this is technically a writing contest or something? I guess if there isn't a draw maybe that's allowed.

I would be concerned about the integrity involved in evaluating the responses to pick a winner. At least with a lottery or random draw anyone can win. This and any other similar scheme can essentially be elaborate scams where the winner will end up being a friend or someone else that is known to the owner. At least with draws and lotteries they are usually overseen by independent auditors and have clauses that limit the winners relationship.

[bagofpucks]

Yah, we know a bit of the Millarville one and its really too bad. I’m not one to want governments to step in, but this is definitely something I think needs some better rules around. A $5 administration fee is ridiculous and I don’t understand how this is legal. The worst part is I don’t think any of these sales have worked, so it just makes a major headache for everyone involved.

[Locke]

At best isnt this just essentially just crowd-funding a house for someone at random?

[You Need a Thneed]

Rick is a relative of a relative, and I have been in that house once or twice.

It’s nice... if you like that kind of house. It’s certainly not a typical house. It certainly is unique.

I know he put several years of his life into building that place by himself. Many, many hours of work.

Would I pay $100 to have a 1/5200 chance of winning it? Nope. It seems unlikely to me that he’ll find 5200 people that will.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by stang

What the legality of this?

From a tax point of view, I would assume that you'd have to pay full taxes on all the "entries" you receive, as opposed to just selling it and getting the primary residence exemption.

Seems poorly thought out.

Does anyone know anything about property values in this area? Is $520k a significant discount?

[Calgary14]

Originally Posted by blankall

From a tax point of view, I would assume that you'd have to pay full taxes on all the "entries" you receive, as opposed to just selling it and getting the primary residence exemption.

Seems poorly thought out.

Does anyone know anything about property values in this area? Is $520k a significant discount?

Interesting writeup on the tax implications for the Millarville home that tried something similar by selling tickets. If the homeowner has to pay taxes on the amounts received it would 100% not be worth it.

http://www.mondaq.com/canada/x/77973...usiness+Income

[shogged]

there is no way this guy didn't just see the millarville woman try and fail. I think its pretty obvious hes looking forward to pocketing a few thousand bucks in fees.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Canadianman

This is basically a scam. I don't understand why they let that other lady try it earlier and I don't understand why they are allowing it to happen again

I don’t think he’s being fraudulent, it’s just a poorly thought out plan.

[Canadianman]

Originally Posted by Shazam

I don’t think he’s being fraudulent, it’s just a poorly thought out plan.

Taking 5% even if you don't sell the amount to equal what you feel your house is worth is a scam.

[bagofpucks]

That’s the problem with the Millarville house as well. I don’t think the lady was malicious, but at the end of the day she has a lot of money that doesn’t belong to her that she is having trouble returning. Also, there were numerous scammers that got involved and tried to use similar email addresses to get people to send the money to. The whole thing was a disaster from start to finish.