Home Giveaway Essay Contest Goes Bust

We've seen all kinds of gimmicks used to try to sell homes in the sluggish real estate market. Here's a new one: an essay contest.

But judging from the article below, sellers might want to take a pass on this approach.

From The Associated Press, via Boom2Bust:

The deadline has just passed for J. J. Rodgers and her husband Wes Ludlow to give away their second home in Red Feather Lakes, Colo. The couple started the contest in January after their two-story home sat on the block for three straight summers.From across the country, people mailed in essays and the $100 entry fee. Rodgers said she was "astounded and touched" by the stories strangers were willing to share.The couple extended the May 25 deadline, but still fell about 700 entries short of the 2,000 needed to make the contest work financially."We knew going in the possibility of it not being successful. That's historically true about essay contests," Rodgers said.

The couple plans to put the mountain home back on the market and return the entry fees. As for the essays, Rodgers isn't sure what she will do with them.

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