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Owners returning every cent from essay house contest

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by Lindsay Chamberlain, KREM.com

Posted on December 2, 2009 at 4:42 PM

Updated Wednesday, Dec 2 at 7:56 PM

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COEUR D'ALENE -- The owners of a house in Coeur d'Alene who tried to sell it in a photo-essay contest say they are returning everyone's money.

In June, KREM 2 News found out about the Webb family, and the essay contest they created to sell their house. The house has three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, sits on 11 acres near Mica Flats, and is worth about $700,000.

The Webbs lived in the house for 16 years, raised their kids there, and ultimately decided they wanted their house to go to the right person.

They decided to put it up for sale using an essay contest. Each entrant was asked to write a 1,500 word essay, explaining why they'd like to live in the house, and submit a $150 entrance fee. Hoping they would get 4,000 entries, the Webbs anticipated they would make enough money to equal the worth of the home.

Months later, however, they changed the contest to just pictures, saying they were getting too many sad stories to decide who should win.

But in September, the Idaho State Gambling Commission caught wind of the contest and shut it down. They cited violation of gambling codes, and ordered that all money would have to be returned.

Wednesday, Wendy Webb told KREM 2 News her family has done just that -- returned all the money, except for a remaining 250 out of 2,600 entries.

Webb says she believes it was when the contest was changed to photo entries that started all the problems, causing it to be shut down.

As of now, the Webbs still own the house. Webb tells KREM 2 News she doesn't regret holding the contest, but won't do anything like it again in the future.

 

 

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whawha said on December 2, 2009 at 5:37 PM

I wonder how much interest the earned on all that money sitting there for so long. They should have to give that back as well.

spoklahoma said on December 3, 2009 at 6:17 AM

GEEZ, whahwa! Why should they have to pay interest? Im so sure that was the intent of these ppl - to make money of the intrest when they thought this contest up LoLz! Ok, give intrest back to WHO? I mean, legally, the intrest belongs to them anyways since I (if I was trying to win the contest) elelcted to give them money in the first place. It's not like it was a forced fee or anything.

whawha said on December 3, 2009 at 11:20 AM

The fact is that they used SOMEONE ELSES MONEY and maybe profited from it. They should pay intreest, if any, that they received back to the people that sent in the money for the contest. They held the oney for a long period of time, and then did NOT follow through with the plans, in fact, they changed the rules in the middle of the contest. It is clear that you know nothing about finance.

ericadunn83 said on December 3, 2009 at 5:23 PM

"Owners return every cent" WELL THATS A LITTLE MISLEADING!!! They returned all but 250 entries and at $150 a pop thats $37,500.00. I don't belive these people did this with the intent to "give" their home away. They found a way to play on peoples emotions and made almost 40 grand doing it. Modern day crooks if you ask me!!