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A well-written essay and $200 could win you a nearly 6,000-square-foot house in historic downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Paula and Robert Welsh said they love their brick Georgian house, but felt they needed a bigger yard for their grandchildren, it was time to move.
The home, which has six bedrooms, four-and-a-half bathrooms and five off-street parking spaces along with a two-car garage with a one-bedroom apartment, was put on the market for $1.8 million.
When it didn’t sell right away, the Welshes decided to think of alternatives.
“We didn’t expect that,” Paula Welsh said with a laugh. “We even briefly considered a bed-and-breakfast, because it would be a charming bed-and-breakfast.”
After the retired couple realized that making it a bed-and-breakfast or putting it up as an Airbnb would take a lot of work, they thought of raffling the house off.
“When looking through the Code of Virginia, raffles are not legal unless you’re a nonprofit and you have a license,” Paula said.
That’s what led the couple to give away the house through a skill-based contest.
“It is an entry fee of $200, and an essay of why you want to live in downtown historic Fredericksburg,” Paula explained.
There is a minimum limit of 15,000 entries, with the money going to cover the cost of the house, expenses and the prize taxes for the winner. The Fredericksburg SPCA and the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank will also receive donations.
The judges deciding the winner of the “Write Your Way Home” essay contest will be a panel of members from the two local charities. The Welshes will not be part of the judging process.
The 250-500-word essays will be judged on emotional impact, originality, creativity, relevance to theme, grammar and punctuation.
The contest starts Friday and runs until 8 p.m. on Sept. 30.
WTOP’s Neal Augenstein contributed to this report.
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