
$150 House - taylorwc
http://www.150house.com/
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Someone1234
Selecting the best essay seems silly. Unless you're submitting a hard luck
case or some other sentimental diatribe there's little point competing. Plus
it is very hard to believe bias wouldn't be a factor.

Also this: > By putting our home on the market for a dollar, we have made home
ownership in an expensive and competitive market more affordable to a greater
portion of the population.

Feels completely disingenuous. So they're taking $150 from 2000+ people who
they feel bad for because they're poor. That makes absolutely no sense. That's
like selling poor people a lottery ticket but proclaiming "but they could will
ten million dollars!"

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cmdrfred
I agree a nomination system makes more sense. "This is why the janitor at my
work deserves a house" kinda thing.

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mwachs
Nomination is interesting, but what if the person nominated doesn't want the
house? Then we (I'm the person who runs 150house) have gone through
potentially thousands of essays for nothing.

I guess it doesn't really matter, but I don't believe this is a scam and it's
not preying on poor people: We (middle class) submitted an offer under similar
terms for a bed and breakfast in Maine. There is only one house, so only one
person/family/entity can eventually own it.

Also, if we don't sell the home via this process (which looks likely), we're
refunding money. But sure, call it a scam--although it's the very worst scam
considering I've told everyone where I live with my family, my phone number in
a large font, my email, and potentially making no money. Quite sinister,
indeed.

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cmdrfred
If the person doesn't want the house, maybe go to the next person on the list?
If you vote by committee (maybe let the internet vote) you have a line of
succession. I don't think its a scam, but lotteries are bad news for families
living in poverty. It's great for the one that wins, its a kick down deeper
for the rest.

~~~
mwachs
Well, we were going to grade all of them on a modified AP scale and then bring
the top 20-40 to a panel (journalists, teachers, etc.) and then take the
highest "scoring" offer/essay from that. Still subjective, but it would add
some distance. Ultimately, though, this is still a house sale and the criteria
_is_ subjective--the baking contest below was a nice metaphor.

My brother just put in an offer that was accepted on a house in California
that was thousands of dollars below multiple other offers according to the
listing agent. Why? Because the owners liked his letter. Having a letter
accompany an offer is fairly standard in real estate and as long as we're not
violating any fair housing laws (essays were to be stripped of identifying
information), I don't see how this is different. In hacker parlance, it's just
at scale. I am, admittedly, a bit defensive about all of this.

RE: Poverty--I can't control what people are spending their money on. I know
that sounds like a "not my problem" answer, but it would be pretty
condescending for me to tell someone they were not adult enough not to make
their own decisions (we made them check a box that they're 18). For a person
who would become the new owner, it would change their life dramatically—I've
read some realllllly horrible stories about poverty now.

Maybe it's not the best use of money. On the other hand, if you wrote an
amazing offer and competed against--max--3,000 people to own a home, would
that put you at better odds to dramatically change your life than solely
working a minimum wage job in an unsafe environment?

(That said, it wasn't our intent to find the poorest/any specific person to
sell the house to—I'm just using that as an example.)

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quadrangle
So… a _raffle_ for a house combined with some of the hassle people already do
(writing letters about why you should be the buyer of a house is _already_
common in tight markets just for normal purchase situations). The idea that
this makes home ownership more affordable is no more valid than saying that
the lottery enables social mobility.

How about next moving to penny auctions for houses! <sarcasm>

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kentt
Any reason why this wouldn't be a scam? eg. collect $150 fee from a bunch of
people. Award house to preselected person who pays some amount less than the
normal market value of the home.

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bra-ket
or don't award the house to anyone

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someone12345125
I don't believe that this is illegal. Because of the fact that they're doing
the "write an essay" thing it's a competition not a 'raffle'. While yes, it's
completely subjective... It remains within that competition level.

Think about it like this: You enter a pro-poker tournament, you pay $10k to
POSSIBLY win $2million. Or a better example, you enter a baking competition
with a $50 entry. The judges choose based on their feelings. They use their
expert knowledge and weed out the people who couldn't perform technically....
but everything after that is based on their feelings and personal
tastes/preferences. This is no different.

To the point of some other people in this thread... Ye this is totally preying
on desperate people and is F __ked up. I don 't know if they realize or just
don't care but anyone entering is looking to 'better' themselves. There's no
reason to enter a subjective competition like this when you're an investor
with money to burn... so everyone entering is people with sob stories looking
for hope and they're most likely spending money that they really shouldn't be
giving up with their current situation.

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joedavison
I'm pretty sure this is illegal.

[http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0199-prize-
scams](http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0199-prize-scams)

[http://www.ohiostartuplaw.com/is-your-business-running-an-
il...](http://www.ohiostartuplaw.com/is-your-business-running-an-illegal-
lottery/)

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copsarebastards
On top of this being a raffle, it's not even a good business plan. The value
of the house is supposedly $394,000--to recover that amount they would have to
get 2627 people to pay them $150. I kinda doubt that's going to happen.

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runholm
Or they sell it to a secret accomplice, pocketing $150 from who ever thought
it was a legitimate opportunity to get out of poverty.

~~~
copsarebastards
Right, my assumption is that someone smart enough to set up a whole nicely-
designed website is probably too smart to not have done the simple division I
did to get the numbers in my post.

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bobbygoodlatte
How is this not gambling / illegal?

