Last week I posted about my favorite HGTV Dream House being for sale. Ahh, that house (built in 1998) was when winning and living in the HGTV Dream House was possible for most of us.
It seems like winning an HGTV Dream/Green House would be a dream and, I guess it can be. However, there have been a few nightmares along the way. According to this story, the winner of the 2007 HGTV Dream House took the house but didn’t live happily ever after. Their Dream House dream ended up in foreclosure.
John Groszkiewicz, winner of the 2003 HGTV house said officials told him, “the dream is what happens after you sell the house.” You can read more details about what it’s really like to win the HGTV Dream House here.
I am a designer for a local Dream House giveaway here in NE Ohio. Every year for the last 15 or 16 years, the Lake County YMCA builds, decorates and gives away a “Dream House”. It’s usually around a $400,000 package. The winner can decide to take the house OR they can take $200,000 cash. Let me tell you, I buy a ticket or two at $12.00 for the chance of winning!
It’s a very special project that I feel so blessed to be a part of. I waited for more than a year to be considered for the “dream team” of designers. When they did call, I went through an extensive interview and review of my portfolio. I was thrilled when they asked me to be part of the team three years ago! You can read about my 2007 experience here and see my 2008 lower level design here (just scroll down to the Dream House logo on the right and select 2008 Dream House photos).
This year’s house has a kind of Monanta ranch feeling to it. You can see progress pictures here. There are about 12 designers working on the house. We each get a space to design within the parameters established by the theme and color palette. This year I was challenged to create a bedroom for a college-aged boy . . . and it’s a real challenge! I can’t just stick some Fat Heads on the wall or have Sports Illustrated swimsuit model posters as my “decor” [which, let's face it, real college-aged guys would be doing. Hey, this is a Dream House, I gotta do something a bit more ummm, creative. ;o)]
You can tour the house until early August. They select 12 ticket stubs from thousands and those 12 people (or a representative if they are not local) get a key. One by one, each tries their key to see if it unlocks the door to the house! It’s very exiciting. My aunt was a semi-finalist years ago and a past client was also a semi-finalist a few years back. Sadly, they did not have the winning keys.
Our Dream Hose winner gets a consultation with a real estate agent as well as with a financial planner. When winning a package like this, the financial planners I have talked to have all recommend taking the house. If you live in it for two years as your primary residence, you can sell the house and not pay any capital gains taxes on up to $500,000 if you’re married ($250,000 if you’re single.)
Of course, keeping the house means you have to pay taxes to Uncle Sam on the prize. You can use the equity you have in the house to pay that bill and your property taxes which aren’t nearly as crazy as those for the HGTV package.
So winning and living in a Dream House can happen - I just think HGTV has gone far above the average person’s ability to make it possible for “real” people to win and live in their $2 million Dream House Give Away home.
Feeling lucky? If you’d like to buy tickets for a chance to win our local Dream House giveaway, just pop over to this site. You will be able to purchase tickets online in mid-June.
Of course, there’s always the 2010 HGTV Dream House – it’s being build in Albuquerque, NM.
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Can’t wait to see the dream house. …. it is always GREAT… especially can’t wait to see the room you did!!
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