**** Rules Modified Friday 5:47pm ****
Folks it is Friday and it is contest time!
This should be fun! One Contest with four choices to choose from!
We have four potential buyers listed below who want to purchase a home in your city. Of the following buyer choices, you only need to pick one of the buyers listed below.
Write your post as if you were writing to the buyer to introduce the area to the buyer and give a brief description of three homes that you think that they would like to see.
Include the following for the buyer that you choose:
- The Requirements for the Buyer you want to write about (You can cut and paste from here)
- A brief overview of your community (amenities, schools, restaurants, things to do) -- perhaps link to posts you have already written, A link to the City or Town that you are talking about, or links to resources to help the buyer make informed decisions
- A selection of 3 homes for the potential buyer with descriptions and why you feel each would be worth the buyer looking at (they do not have to be your listings, but respect advertising rules for your area)
- Any advice you would give the Buyer you chose and if you suggest the use of a professional (Mortgage, Title, Insurance, Inspector, Attorney) you must name 3 options, not just one.
- Your post should be Professional Category, Visability Public
- Must include the TAG: Buyer Challenge (how the judges will find your entry)
- the Title Should be: Why You Should Purchase Your Next Home in (Your City)
- Please place them in the group <The Active Rain Buyer Challenge Group>
- Don't forget to make your post visually appealing !!! You know the things that drive us crazy and that you should NOT do: Wall of Words, poor grammar, spelling errors and visually not pretty... Don't forget to make your post pretty!!!!
What to do you get for entering?
Points -- the amount of points depend on the number of people who enter. The more people that enter the more points we will give each participant! Bonus point for just taking the challenge! Get your friends involved! Come on and take on the challenge!
There will be three winners and each winner will get Featured on ActiveRain and 1,000 bonus points.
Deadline: Entries must be completed by Wednesday, September 12, 2007 12 Noon EST
Winners will be announced Friday, September 14, 2007
Judges for this contest are: Brad Andersohn, Ann Cummings and The Lovely Wife. Now here are your potential buyers for this challenge:
Choice 1 : Paris Hilton
Requirements for this starlet:
- looking to purchase a single family home (will consider a posh penthouse)
- 4 Bedroom/2 baths at least
- 4,000 sf or greater
- Gated Community or enough land to create a zone of privacy
- needs decent access to airport as she travels a lot
- Must have a pool
- Cash buyer, no limits!
Choice 2 - Tom and Michelle Snyder
Requirements for this young couple with 2 young children:
- Single Family Home 4/2 bath
- 1,200-2,400 sf home
- 2 car garage
- Would like to be close enough to an elementary school that the children could walk to school
- They are relocating to your city and their company has agreed purchased their existing home already, which will result in $90,000 for a down payment
- They want to spend about $400,000 on a home
Choice 3 - Angie and Joe Thompson
Requirements for this couple are a follows:
- Looking for a vacation home to retire to in 5-7 years, would like to be able to rent it out when they are not there
- They have a home in NJ, worth $500,000 and have $325,000 left to pay on the mortgage
- They have two daughters, a freshman and junior in High School
- They love the water, and would like to be near water, a lake, river, ocean
- Joe loves to Golf and Angie plays tennis
- Will need a management company and additional guidance
- They have $75,000 to put down, have not been approved yet
- They want to purchase a home with a pool, but open to a condo
Choice 4 - David Anderson
Requirements for this man:
- He was honorably discharged from the Army last year
- He has $10,000 in savings and has a salary of $35,0000 and no debts
- He would like to purchase a condo
- What are the options for him in your area -- could he dare to dream of a single family home instead of a condo?
I'm right here :)
And looking forward to seeing if the members can give me a bad case of "Rain Brain" ...
TLW...ROAR!
Carolyn -- Thanks! I hope you find time to take it!
Brian -- Looking forward to your post!
TLW -- This should be fun!
Neal -- Thank you.
Midori -- Thanks! I look forward to your entry...
Everyone else -- have a Great day.. I am off to a class and will check in later...
Colleen,
This sounds so interesting, I will continue to watch and see, what comes out of this :0)
Tom Weiss
looks like fun
but the mortgage people are left out again
maybe there needs to be a challenge as well for mortgage people to pitch the loans to them
why not add some REAL challenge to both the Agents and the Mortgage people by adding salary credit and some debt calculations... see how many realtors will REALLY prequal them and how many different loan programs come up
David
While I understand your comment, I have to say I've been watching a lot of the carnivals and challenges for something that I could participate in organically.
Also, pre-qual is local. In other words, I don't pre qualify my clients, their lender or the lender we recommend does this. And yes, we wait until we know how much they are qualified for before showing property. Yes, I know how to pre qual for $ amount, but I want pre approval before wasting anyone's time.
This is a great Idea, Good luck,
J.
I'll be watching from over here ~~~>.
Okay Folks...
Colleen and I have decided to open a group for this contest.
Please tag your entries "Buyer Challenge" and place them in the group.
<The Active Rain Buyer Challenge Group>
TLW...ROAR!
Colleen,
Sounds like a fun contest....Paris could have her 2nd home here in Palm Springs. She has visited here with her family.
What a great idea. This could be a lot of fun and I can't wait to read the posts. ;-)
Ciao!
Colleen,
I love the way it sounds. I am in.
Ok -- the jury is out -- Professional & Public
Also, for all those Mortgage Professionals out there -- why not join the fun and write a post on financing options for one of the four options? Ok -- Paris might be a cash buyer, but the other three might be interesting to review...
Tracey -- I didn't think about the afforability issue. If you want to do one of the others, change their downpayment so they can afford to purchase a home.
TLW thanks for creating the group and keeping things running while I was at class. Ann Cummings -- Thank you for agreeing to be our third judge!
Colleen, Wow, one squeak from BB and it goes from private to public. Think of the power.
Bill Roberts
Bill -- It was the right thing to do, in my haste to get this out, I missed an imporant aspect of this contest an in doing Members only I defeated the pupose of the contest. Broker Bryant was kind enough to point it out! We are all a team, rowing in the same direction! That is what is so wonderful about this place! One of us sees that someone is going off in a wrong direction we just let that person know nicely. I was grateful for the catch....
Ok... For those worried about confussion, the first sentance should read:
This is a contest entry to the The Active Rain Buyer Challenge
Colleen - I think this will be a really fun contest and I'm looking forward to all of the creative entries. Thanks for asking me to take part as a judge!
You come up with some really creative contests, and this is another great one!
Ann
Hi Colleen,
This one sounds like fun, now lets see how creative we can all get! Thanks :)
Neat idea, Colleen. Given the buyers, adn the prices in my area, it looks like the choice of candidates is pretty slim. Should be fun...the thoughts are churning.
Jeff
Very creative idea. Good exercise in looking for actives in my area for these buyers.
Jeff -- Go ahead and change the parameter of downpayment of one of the choices to be able to give you something to work with.....
Everyone.... Good Luck at this challenge! The entries are starting to show up so definately check out the group
The Active Rain Buyer Challenge
Don't forget to to make sure that you enter! The more people that enter, the more bonus points that members get for entering the contest!
Colleen,
Sally sent me here, and my only question is the requirement for Pretty.....if we do not have pretty places for sale, would this still qualify....I work out in the desert, not the golf club, green grass and palm trees desert, but the brown dirt one ?
Help, can I still enter with the criteria, and homes available ?
Absolutely... I was referring to your post needs to be pretty... No wall of words, layout appealing....
Have fun with this!
Just a note, Paris bought a home today, so all of you selling to her are out of luck :)
Colleen,
Just noticed the contest today! I am off to a three day seminar. I will do my best to participate in this contest. Sounds really intereting and it looks like it does need some research. What a challenge!!
The idea of a contest is intriguing - It will be very interesting to see how many members participate. If I can get away from business challenges this week I plan to give it a try.
Karen
Great idea. I can't wait to see the submissions. I too will put my cap on and see what happens.
Everyone --- I am so sorry I can't answer each and everyone of you... So looking forward to all those that enter... It will be so much fun and think about it!
POINTS! Everyone that enters gets a Localism feature! Everyone who enters gets bonus points (The number grows with the number of participants!!!!!!!! Get your friends in on it!) And there are 5 Winners instead of 3! Just think of all the fun!
I actually got mine in on time! This was a great one Colleen. Now I go read the rest of them.
There are a lot of great entries in this contest - love reading them all and I wish everyone good luck!!
Ann
Great Idea.. nothing wrong with a little competition!
Hope everyone has lots of fun!
Colleen,
I think I got it tagged and put in the correct categories. Can you let me know if my entry doesn't show up? I was a little confused by the Professional category, but I think I have it right.
http://activerain.com/blogsview/208651/Why-You-Should-Purchase
I put my link here in case it doesn't show up where it should. If this is unacceptable, please delete my comment, but let me know by email if it didn't make it to the right place.
Thanks,