THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => CHATTER => Topic started by: ImRonBurgundy? on 05 Apr 2008, 21:26
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Well, you can get one for just $100 and a 500-word essay on any topic! Due date is May 25th.
http://www.coloradohomeessaycontest.com/
If I had a spare $100 lying around, I'd seriously consider giving this a shot.
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That's a nice part of Colorado, too.
It raises a lot of questions, though.On its face it looks just like a way to easily compile a book of essays (entering an essay entails forfeiture of rights to the work), but that seems a benign purpose for giving away a fuckin' house. There's got to be a scheme.
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Man there HAS to be a catch.
I live halfway across the world from Colarado and I want to own that place.
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It's never that easy. Anything that's that "simple" is rarely, or never, so.
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Man there HAS to be a catch.
I live halfway across the world from Colarado and I want to own that place.
And well you should, Colorado is awesome.
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Now I want to go up to Estes and shit.
Thanks a lot, shady contest.
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Make sure to go to... Damn, forget what it is called, it is a diner up there, it has a woman's name, two words, they have the best strawberry-rhubarb pie there. Once I get a car, I am going to have to go hiking more often up there.
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Yeah, some good places up there. Expensive, but good. And there's the Shining hotel!
That's the thing though, I live not 10 minutes away from the mountains (just outside Ft. Collins) and yet I haven't been to them in years. And I really want to go, but I never get up early and never have the time. Plus, all my friends are guys who resent having to slowly jog from any one place to another, let alone hike up a mountain.
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Even though I do not like living in a house like that (I prefer living in an apartment building), I´d like to take part in that contest, just so that I could say "I got myself a house for 100 dollars!".
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Yes, but they'd be in fucking Detroit.
Someone didn't think his cunning plan all the way through...
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the catch is you gotta pay taxes on it.
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^ Bingo.
Yeah, you have a basically free house to begin with, but now you have an expensive house on expensive land that comes with expensive taxes.
And the IRS doesn't forgive or forget.
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I saw the name of this thread and for some reason I thought of the baseball team. I was utterly confused for a second. Then I read that this is about housing that costs about half of what my next paycheck will be.
Considering that the houses around where I live cost an average of USD$490,000, I'd take that shit in a heartbeat, regardless of taxes.
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^ Bingo.
Yeah, you have a basically free house to begin with, but now you have an expensive house on expensive land that comes with expensive taxes.
And the IRS doesn't forgive or forget.
Not only that but you have to pay taxes on stuff you win as a prize if it's worth more than a certain amount. I'm not sure of the technicalities, but I remember Oprah was criticized when she gave away free cars on one episode because the catch was contestants had to pay a certain amount of money to keep the prize. Some of them couldn't afford the tax, which was like a couple thousand, so in reality a lot of people who won cars were forced to sell them to pay it off.
This implies that whoever wins the house may have to sell it to pay the tax. It's mentioned on the website here:
"All contest winners are subject to paying taxes on their winnings. Therefore, the winner of this contest will be obligated to pay taxes on this property. However, with a debt-free warranty deed providing the winner with nearly $200,000 of built-in equity, this should not be a financial burden to the winner."
So...I guess that last line addresses the tax, but I don't really understand it well enough to evaluate it.
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"All contest winners are subject to paying taxes on their winnings. Therefore, the winner of this contest will be obligated to pay taxes on this property. However, with a debt-free warranty deed providing the winner with nearly $200,000 of built-in equity, this should not be a financial burden to the winner."
So...I guess that last line addresses the tax, but I don't really understand it well enough to evaluate it.
I think that just means you can take out like $200,000 of mortgage on the property if you really wanted.
I'm not sure of the technicalities, but I remember Oprah was criticized when she gave away free cars on one episode because the catch was contestants had to pay a certain amount of money to keep the prize. Some of them couldn't afford the tax, which was like a couple thousand, so in reality a lot of people who won cars were forced to sell them to pay it off.
How can you be criticized for that? It's a free car, I'd be fine just selling it and keeping the difference anyways. It's a prize and that's how American laws work. Should everyone be criticized for giving stuff away?
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That is a perty house. I say a bunch of us chip in, write an awesome essay, and win the thing. With enough of us, we can afford taxes!
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I already live in Colorado! Right on the fuckin front range of the rockies!
But yeah people do this from time to time. 2 years ago in my home town there was a house in Flo Ride Ah that was totally goin for like $100
+ essay but I mean if you are really that desperate than go for it. I do not need to live in a house right now.
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It is pretty simple. THey said they will return all the submitted entries if there aren't at least 2,000 of them. 2,000 x 100 = $200,000. If they get more then 2,000 entries, then, they get even more. However, I believe that there might be legal issues even if the contest was completely on the up and up. Hell, it is going to a po box. They might just see how many people they can get to send them $100 and then run.
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Yeah, some good places up there. Expensive, but good. And there's the Shining hotel!
That's the thing though, I live not 10 minutes away from the mountains (just outside Ft. Collins) and yet I haven't been to them in years. And I really want to go, but I never get up early and never have the time. Plus, all my friends are guys who resent having to slowly jog from any one place to another, let alone hike up a mountain.
I have heard about the shining hotel, but never gone to see it. Never seen the movie, actually. Not a big horror person. I have some friends that are big hikers, but I am not really one, I don't do well going up and down hills, especially not with another thousand feet or more tacked on to the elevation. I just like the scenery for the most part.
Honestly, my dream would be to buy some land up in the mountains and build a gothic revival style house there. Just live up there in the mountains, preparing for the zombies.
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It mentioned the property taxes too. It was around $1800, or something like that. I'm not sure if that's expensive or not.
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Yeah, some good places up there. Expensive, but good. And there's the Shining hotel!
That's the thing though, I live not 10 minutes away from the mountains (just outside Ft. Collins) and yet I haven't been to them in years. And I really want to go, but I never get up early and never have the time. Plus, all my friends are guys who resent having to slowly jog from any one place to another, let alone hike up a mountain.
I have heard about the shining hotel, but never gone to see it. Never seen the movie, actually. Not a big horror person. I have some friends that are big hikers, but I am not really one, I don't do well going up and down hills, especially not with another thousand feet or more tacked on to the elevation. I just like the scenery for the most part.
Honestly, my dream would be to buy some land up in the mountains and build a gothic revival style house there. Just live up there in the mountains, preparing for the zombies.
Yeah, but don't forget the Winter. I can't handle icy roads on the plains, I'll go mental living in the mountains.
It's too bad they don't have YMCA programs for adults. You could just go live up in Rocky Mountain National Park for a few weeks each Summer. I could live with that. It's what I did as a kid.
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Nah, man, roads up in some places are better in the winter. The packed snow fills in the bumps in the road.
Seriously, though, we have a front wheel drive minivan and do fine up in the mountains with snow. It actually isn't the winter you worry about, it is right around the spring equinox. That is when the most snow comes in. For the most part, at least, there are some exceptions.
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That is a perty house. I say a bunch of us chip in, write an awesome essay, and win the thing. With enough of us, we can afford taxes!
What ever happed to the missle silo? Or the Korean hotel?
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I propose that QC together submits that essay the Bryan did for that college application.
You all know the one I'm talking about.
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Was it better than mine? I wrote an essay about how Eric Cantona may be the biggest badass on the face of the planet.
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That is a perty house. I say a bunch of us chip in, write an awesome essay, and win the thing. With enough of us, we can afford taxes!
What ever happed to the missle silo? Or the Korean hotel?
Huh?
And what is with college essays. I didn't write no stinkin essay to get into college. (I applied to the English Dept., too, and they didn't require an essay!)
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We were supposed to buy and collectively live in an abandoned missile silo, and an uncompleted hotel in Pyongyang.
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I guess I missed that, then. But Colorado is prettier! And we can get massive amounts of snow in winter! ... Skip that last bit. Can this be the "summer home" then?
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Oh, I see how it is. No one ever wants to go sledding with me.
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We were supposed to buy and collectively live in an abandoned missile silo, and an uncompleted hotel in Pyongyang.
Everyone forgets the castle.
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And we can get massive amounts of snow in winter! ... Skip that last bit. Can this be the "summer home" then?
Wait. We can get lots of snow? Where?
And sometimes it gets a mite hot in the summer, up past 100F, that would be about 38C. It is nicer up higher though, and Red Feather is apparently up near 8k feet elevation.
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Was it better than mine? I wrote an essay about how Eric Cantona may be the biggest badass on the face of the planet.
Perhaps if you had written it about Aron Ralston, it would be the best essay ever
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Guys it says "Void where prohibited." Does anyone else have a sneaking suspicion that there might be something somewhere in some code of law that makes it a huge scam?
If not, I really hope this turns into an awesome book.
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Also, with the way houses are selling now, a $200,000 house wouldn't go for half that. you'd have a tax burden that you could live in, though.
also, only 2,000 people have to enter for whomever is running this to make good on their investment, plus a shitlload of free essays for whatever reason.
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What troll said.
Let's see, sub $200,000 house, $100 per entry, if they don't get at least 2000 entries they promise to return the money, hmmm....
But if they get 10,000 entires, why! that's over $800,000 profit! Incidentally, assuming equal chance among all participants and 2000 participants, you would be spending $100 for a 1/2000 chance to get less than $200,000 which works out to an average of less than $100. So on average you would almost be breaking even -- which isn't bad for a lottery. However that's the optimal scenario. Far more likely is one of the following:
-- there will not be 2000 applicants, so you hope you get your money returned.
-- there will be more than 2000 applicants, so your average return will be less than your investment.
-- there will be collusion with one of the supposed applicants, and you will have wasted $100.
In other words, this doesn't need to be a scam based on a reference to "void where prohibited", since even if the contest operates as advertised, the sellers only stand to make money.
Incidentally, I'll give a 1% chance of winning $1000 to anyone who sends me $11 by paypal and a picture of a smiley face. Void where prohibited.
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We were supposed to buy and collectively live in an abandoned missile silo, and an uncompleted hotel in Pyongyang.
I thought that hotel didn't exist.
oh shi-
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Did anyone else look at this thread title and go "Buhh? How could you build a home inside a baseball team?"
I feel retarded.
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I saw the name of this thread and for some reason I thought of the baseball team. I was utterly confused for a second.
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What ever happed to the missle silo?
Dude deep crows!
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Did anyone else look at this thread title and go "Buhh? How could you build a home inside a baseball team?"
My first thought was "Man I do not want to live inside Troy Tulowitski."
...deep crows, Khar? Do I want to know?
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They're a fucking (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/10/10/) menace (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/3/21/).
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Oh, THAT'S where the Deep Crow thing was from. For some reason I thought it originated in the forum topic here.
I read Penny Arcade but only in spurts of "When I Feel Like It".
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Oh, I see how it is. No one ever wants to go sledding with me.
No one has ever invited me, so I have never gone at all. Fix this!
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Make sure you get one of those old-fashioned ones with runners, those are fun, as long as you don't freak out and try to stop.
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when i read this topic subject i like to imagine a home which is literally inside the baseball team by the name the Colorado Rockies.
anyone else? eh? eh?
funny mental images? hm? hm? perhaps? maychance?
no? just me?
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That has been mentioned like eight goddamn times already
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dammit, you're totally right! i'm a fuckin' idiot!
durrrrrrrrrrrr.
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Oh, I see how it is. No one ever wants to go sledding with me.
No one has ever invited me, so I have never gone at all. Fix this!
Linds, dear. Come visit us MA folk in the winter and partake in sledding! Please?
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They're a fucking (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/10/10/) menace (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/3/21/).
You know, one thing I like about Penny-Arcade is how often they reuse old stuff that people had probably forgotten about. I think it's pretty cool, anyway.