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The local-centric whining about this issue is ridiculous. It was a national contest with 43 MILLION entries … the chance that it would be won by a family that actually wanted to move to Asheville and live in the house was always vanishingly small.
The only people who really have any right to be upset about this situation are the folks whose home design and construction have been delayed for over a year while their builder has been obsessing over his time in the HGTV limelight.
Epic fail. The house is incredibly overpriced but what’s more disappointing is that this contest didn’t eliminate people like this woman who compulsively registered to win this house having never even been to asheville, having more people in her household than this house accommodates, and not even knowing if she is going to move in. It’s ironic that we have all of these affordable housing crises in town but this house may just sit vacant. HGTV needs to step up their criteria game.
Seriously??
It’s a contest giving away a house and 100K and a new car. It’s free to enter. OF COURSE people enter, if they care about the house or not. Sell i for 1/3 the price and they still have 200K (at least) free money after taxes. What’s the uproar about???? Someone will buy it and live in it. It won’t sit vacant.
If it were me, I’d yell “PUNT”.
I watched them take that house basically to the studs and rebuild it. They did a nice job, maxed the footprint, added a 1 car garage. It’s nice.
But worth 400k? (500K minus the 50K cash and car) Me thinks not. Plus AVL real estate prices are getting toppy now. I’d whip that thing on the market so fast and hit the bid.
I thought exactly the same thing.
Interesting how HGTV whitewashed the story a little. The Citizen-Times reported in their article about this that:
“Harriman, who had never heard of Asheville until she read about the contest, will travel here sometime in November, HGTV officials confirmed, although the exact date of her trip is undetermined.
The family is traveling to Asheville soon, and Harriman said they’ll try to decide whether to occupy, rent or sell the house. “We are not sure. We haven’t decided,” she said. “We’re just really excited to come down and see Asheville and walk through the house.”
So they aggressively entered a contest for a house that is too small for them and they may not actually live in it, may just sell it, and never heard of Asheville before they entered? Wish someone had won it who actually had a vested interest in being in Asheville.
Harriman said they’ll try to decide whether to occupy, rent or sell the house. “We are not sure. We haven’t decided,” she said.
I was all ready to say ‘Congratulations! Welcome to Asheville!’ Now… not so much.
I once entered a contest to win a Buick even though I had no intention to drive it around….
It’s a contest and she won.
It’s a promotion for HGTV and they win on ratings, viewer engagement and PR.
It was an old, ugly, run-down house, and now it’s restored, so it’s a win for comps in WVL.
This isn’t a trend, it’s a one-off thing that doesn’t matter a hill-o-beans in the long-run.