An $11 house: Hmm, that's affordable
In an age of Internet scams, this innovative sales approach is all uphill
Laura Drake
The Edmonton Journal
Monday, December 15, 2008
CREDIT: John Lucas, The Journal
On a chilly Sunday afternoon, David Stockburger stands in front of the house at 11720 95A St. that he is putting up as a prize for an essay contest.
EDMONTON - Inside the unfinished, barely heated shell of a house at 11720 95A St., David Stockburger's breath freezes in small puffs as he sits on an old metal chair, one of the few things in the two-and-a-half-storey building that is not construction materials.
Over the next six months, he will spend every working day making the house livable -- refurbishing the oak hardwood floors and laying linoleum, putting up walls and building bookshelves and cubbyholes -- until he is left with an essentially brand-new four-bedroom house.
Then he will sell it for $11. Or at least, he's going to try.
"I know people are skeptical. I advertised on Kijiji at the beginning and people wrote back saying: 'This is a scam,' " he said Sunday, sitting in what will become the living room of the house.
"People either believe in it or not, and I think that's a hurdle."
Stockburger and his wife, Esther, bought the condemned property in 2006 after finding it in the Bargain Finder for $120,000 with an eye to fix it up and resell it.
When they were talking about it at home one day, his six-year-old daughter asked how much they would sell it for and suggested a price of $5.
Though Stockburger laughed, he got to thinking that if a lot of people gave a small amount of money, the house could ultimately be given to one person mortgage-free.
And thus the 11 Dollar House contest was born. The idea is that anyone who is legally able can pay an $11 entry fee to submit their name and at least one reason why they should own the house. Stockburger and his wife will pick the best entries and put them on a Facebook group, where people will vote to determine the winner.
The contest encourages people to be honest and open about why they want the house and not to worry about being extraordinary. However, entries can take any form -- video, poetry or song, for example -- and can list as many reasons as the entrant wants.
The Stockburgers bought a website (
www.the11dollarhouse.com) and started a Facebook group to promote the idea. However, it turns out that giving a house away for almost-free is kind of hard in the age of Internet scams.
So far, the contest only has about 200 entries. In order for the Stockburgers to come even close to breaking even, they need at least 25,000. If they don't get 25,000 entries, Stockburger said, he will refund everyone's $11 and just sell the house normally.
Though Stockburger would like to see the contest through to its end, he and his wife simply can't afford to give the house away without making back most of their costs.
The original deadline for the contest was Dec. 31, but if they get at least 1,000 entries by then, the deadline will be pushed back to February or so to try and get the minimum 25,000 entries.
Even if the contest gets the minimum number of people, Stockburger will fall at least $25,000 short of his costs, which he figures will be more than $300,000 by the time he finishes.
"That would be OK, though, because it was a real neat story and maybe I could write a book about it and it would just be a crazy story."
Though it might be hard to see what Stockburger gets out of spending full-time working hours fixing up a house in the hopes of giving it away for less than cost, he has plenty of reasons.
The lawyer has always wanted to fix up a house, he said, and this is giving him the opportunity. There's also the undeniable originality aspect, not to mention the chance to see how people make their case.
"It's kind of an experiment, really. It's the curiosity of who will get it and who will enter."
Stockburger thinks this is the first time something like this has been done in Canada, though he's seen similar contests in the United States where the entry fees are more in the $100 range. He thinks his entry fee is more likely to entice those who remain skeptical.
"If it were me, I know I might enter for $11, but gee whiz, if it was a hundred dollars I'd say even if my chances were one-in-a-thousand to win, it's still more likely I'd lose $100."
Stockburger says he's realistic about the odds of getting enough entries to see the contest through, given the pace with which entries have rolled in up to now, but he's still hopeful it will happen.
If all goes well, someone will be chosen by the end of March and should be able to move into their fully renovated and appliance-equipped house by May, since Stockburger hopes to be done all his work by April.
There's even a little historical fun fact that comes along with the house -- it was owned by former provincial NDP leader Grant Notley from 1968 to 1971. Stockburger said he contacted Edmonton-Strathcona MLA Rachel Notley, Grant's daughter, to confirm that she and her family did, in fact, live in the house.
The contest also stipulates that the winner will own the house free and clear, so they can do what they want with it. However, Stockburger is confident that all his work will not be for naught.
"If someone won and tore down the house, I think they'd be crazy, because they're not going to do whatever they want to do next for $11."
[email protected]
© The Edmonton Journal 2008
Copyright © 2008 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=5c32038d-4c1c-4371-94e4-a58106dcfe0f&sponsor=
Prev
Linear Mode
