Bill - I already told my daughter she needs to write a story. She has two dogs rescued from being put to sleep, then they got a snake, and they have two beautiful mice.

But you are correct on creativity. First class. Would you be sirprised if this would be for some time the most talked about $1,250,000 home in the area?

Bryan -isn't it enticing? $200 and a heartfelt story about your pet, and you are the owner of $1,250,000. And it is all yours, you can live in it free of mortgage, and pay about $1,000 a months between utilities, taxes and insurance, or sell it and get a smaller home, and some money to retire early.

SO, get to the pen and paper (LOL)

Bill - That's what I have in the back of my wicked mind. But hey, how many times people are aiming high just to get the crumbels?

So, it will be very interesting to watch this one, as I am sure I won't watch the copycats.

I got a feeling that she will pull it off.

Mike - I do not think there is any. What stunned is the way she tackled the sale of her home. It would have otherwise be a stale $1,250,000 property among other thousands and thousands of similar or better ones, but now there is a lot of people who know about it.

I do not exclude that one of the ideas behind this promotion is just to get somebody to look at it, and give her the offer, and she might cancel the whole thing and declare it sold.

It is the marketing angle that caught my eye. It is the creativity, that surprised me.

Miss Clementina Marie Giovannetti - your comment was very unexpected and it is trully the sign of changing times. As far as I can understand, you are not an active member of this community, and the mere fact that you found it shows how the world has changed.

So, this is a welcoming sign. And I will see you on April 24. I will introduce myself.

Gene - I did not get this OR. She will have a lot of money if the plan works. To think that she is doing it for $20 is not serious. Imagine reading 6,250 entries, and then read the ones that passed the first step, and then again and again, this is not a small feat.

I spoke to a publisher, who had a Thanksgiving story contest and they said this is so much work, and they had just a few hundred entries to go through.

Guys, stop being cynical, look at the whole endeavor and get surprised by the creativity, and by the implementation. How many of us would wake up and say that they will get 6,250 do something that we want?

Let's give the lady the credit that she deserves.

Jennifer -  I play Florida Lotto with way less chances to win and I forget it the next day. However, I have to say I was impressed by the way it is all structured. Even by the fact that if she does not get 6,250 entries, she can quit. THis is a weird business of selling a home for $1,250,000. So, it does not matter if you wrote the best essay, if the money is not there (she does not get the right price, the deal is off.

We may not like the arrangement, but who said life is fair?

Let me ask you that: Clementina Marie will most probably sell her home for $1,250,000. I also think she would sell a lot of her books, as many would try to familiarize themselves with her style. Did you here this name before? I didn't and I think a lot of people on AR didn't before.

So, no matter how this thing ends, she is the winner (and financially as well).

How many agents and brokers on the 23rd of July will close on a home appraised at $1,250,000 in a declining market and still close it for $1,250,000? I bet there are some that would tell their Sellers to reduce the price to $790,000 as there are not calls and not showings?

A darn good lemon this is.

Lola - I told my daughter that I pay $200 and she rights the story. For me it is fun, more than a Florida lotto, for her, whith 4 pets and a calling for writing is fun.

I was, however, very unpleasantly surprised by Clementina Marie's marketing machine, that turned into a spam machine. I ran into the same message and photo, as somewhere above on nearly all blogs I visited the other day.

So, Clementina Marie. Please, do not break the AR rules. We love to play the game fair. Even the best idea is only a good idea as long as it has been promoted the fair way. So, why not play it nice and fair?

Bronson - We can either applaud the clever way to market (even though we may not be doing it, as licensees, working for others, not as Principals) or get angry that some owner takes the matter in her own hands and is darn creative about how she is selling it.

Two things here: interesting idea and creative angle, and the power of marketing, where she is pulling quite a machine running it to success. Being able to combine these two would make the Seller a terrific Director of Marketing for any real estate company.

Well, there is no question about creativity and resourcefulness. Quite a challenge for everyone, so let's see how it unfolds

Wisteria Lane - hey, we spend more in Casinos and we know that we have little chance to win. We spend more on lottery with practically no chance to win.

So, if you feel that this is more fun, it is. Good luck!

Kate - I looked at your profile, and I think you are new to AR. So I welcome you to AR.

I would also suggest that you familiarize yourself with the guidelines and netiquette, so that you can avoid some newbies mistakes, that most of us have made.

Susan - Very cool. I would love to see her succeed, but she didn't. I wrote a blog recently about it. If you want, here's the link: http://www.activerain.com/blogsview/548708/Pet-Lovers-Did-Not

Chirstina,

That's what my grown up children tell me, but with me out in the morning an back at 9-10, and nobody at home during the day, this is not an option.

I guess I will end up with a cat. But then I will retire.

Thanks for the offer

Ken -  It was actually not that much about this mansion, but the creative way to market. We were curious whether creativity could overcome the market. As expected, the answer is no, even in the situation where the price did not matter, as nobody was going actually to pay the price, and it only the question how much she could clear.

As I said, I do not believe it wis worth more than half of that in today's market.

If you are thinking about a vacation property, I can get you an absolutely gorgeous place on the river, a true gem with a dock on a high bank, and for practically half of that price.

I did not get it.  Could you elaborate, please?

David,

Did you ever buy anything from any MLM? The cost of the product there is usually absolutely insignificant to the price. Does it really bother you? Do you know how much the car you are driving cost to build.

But this still is not the point. If you really get 6,000 of entrees, and have to reed and grade, this is a heck of a job. My daughter was running a contest for the best Halloween story for a local magazine, they did not have even close to thousand, and she said it was a disaster to handle, and you need people for that.

To Clementina Marie's credit she did not have many entrees, did not have to involve a lot of people in that, and she returned every penny, as far as I know.

As for why not sell everything by lottery, well, anyway you can sell, as long as it is legal and moral. Why not if we could sell it this way. I guess, we can't. The method itself is not good or bad. It either works or it doesn't.

Why is this marketing idea stupid? It did not work, but that's another story. Let me only say that she put so much effort and is so energetic, that few Realtors could match it, at least I do not personally know a single one like that.

I think thisis creativity, and this is a great quality in anyone. Hey, if we do not make mistake, we may be already dead?

David - well, using the auction example, they do just that. And even they usually have either absolute, where the lot will be sold to the highest bidder, no matter what it is, and the reserves, where the Seller sets the minimum number that they would accept, and if the bids reach it, it is sold, if it doesn't reach it, it is off the auction.

I think it was temping for her to make it an absolute, but nobody knew how far she could go and how much she could get. I do not know for sure, but I think that she was hoping to get what it was listed for or even less, maybe $900K, which at that time was a bit overpriced in my opinion (without really dong CMA). I was thinking that the price could be lower than $800K, and I think if she would get to these numbers, she would let it go.

If you go to Zillow, you would see that they show the range. I think she was trying to bring it to the high point of that range, but it did not work.

It does not mean, however, that this would not work in other places. Ocala could have turn out to be too small for that. But I would not be surprised that you can do something like that in New York.

David,

I think one of the reasons it sis not work was the huge number of people she had to ge involved to get her over a million price. 6,250 entrees was way beyond what the home, and the area could generate.

I guess the math gurus can even come with an optimal ratio, where you may figure, that, if there is only 1.5% to 2% of people who you advertise to, respond to your ad (the response rate), then to be able to sell the property and generate $1,200,000 wold require certain number of people to live in this area.

I think that was one of the factors. New Yyork, Miami, LA could really be different.

As for the church auctions, I thought there are examples of it, but I can be wrong.

Mitzi -  and everyone else. I am sorry i did not address it. It is over for quite some time and you can read my post about it here: http://activerain.com/blogsview/548708/Pet-Lovers-Did-Not

Clementina Marie Giovannetti did not get enough response, she canceled the contest and, according to her site, returned all the money, and I repeat ALL THE MONEY to participants.

I stressed it because some people thought she was doing it for the entry fee, that she could retain. She does not deserve the suspicion. I was surprised by the animosity towards her. I am not sure that if an agent would come up with this idea, it would be taken with the same adversity. Is it because some of us considered this a competition?

I do not know.

Thank you

Liz -  at the same time I heard that there is a place in Canada, where they do something similar every year.

Here Clementina Marie was quite careful, she had an attorney, and I had an impression that this was carefully though of. She was very actively involving TV, and I have a feeling that before those were conducting interviews, they were checking it.

Thanks for an interesting comment

Peter - wow, the blog was written and posted April 11, 2008, and it is exactly 7 months ago. I had to read it again, as I have written another post about this http://activerain.com/blogsview/548708/Pet-Lovers-Did-Not. I am not even sure that I did not write one about my visit to the mansion. I thik I did, but I did not see it, maybe I did not look well enough.

Anyway, if you read a blog, it is about a marketing idea, which is new and bold. So, I did not get it when you are telling me that it is not because she loves people, but simply that this is marketing idea. You call it an opportunist, fine. I t does not change anything.

Whether she is a fraud or not, I do not know, and you do not substantiate it, so this is not fair. However, it has nothing to do with her idea in the first place, and her efforts to implement it in the second.

If you read the blog, you could see that I understand that she was selling it for certain amount, and that this was the way to achieve her goal. So, yes, this is what we all know, and this is absolutely OK. Her goal is to sell for certain price. Her idea of marketing it this way was to acheive the goal. What is wrong with it?

If you read my other blog, it describes that she did not get enough interest, and the deal was over at that time. At time of writing this one, we did not know how this would unfold and were very curious about it.

As for "she did not earn enough money on the scam" I was to ask you where is the scam? You are incredibly indiscriminate with the blame. Where is the scam? Who lost a penny? By the way, her rules state clearly that she will withhold 10% of this $200 as a processing fee. I consulted with a marketing company and they said it is absolutely justifiable.

However, Clementina did not take a penny, She refunded people thier money and did not take a penny. She had some losses, no questions about it. She hired the attorney, printed a lot of nice brochures, she was marketing the event everywhere, got law enforcement to the event... So, where is the scam?

38 or whatever the number of people were there who poured the money knew everything in advance, even that they may do it for nothing if she does not get what she wanted. Peter, they have chosen to participate. Tell me, what's the big deal that they wrote a story and did not get a villa for that, or money, or Nobel Prize? SHe never guaranteed them the house even if she would have received 6,250 entries. It would still go only to one winner, so the rest of 6,249 people, who wrote there heartfelt story would not have one anyway - "all for naught".

And I do not agree that it was poorly planned. I think she deserves cdredit for planning it. You see, our interest as Realtors was to see if marketing could completely win over the real estate values. It turned out that it can't. It confirmed the basic rules of real estate.

However, we know a lot of situations, where you can seriously affect the value. Look at Donald Trump. He licenses his name to some developers because they epect better values in "Trump properties", faster and easier sale, all what we call a brand.

I think I feel anger. I simply do not think that Clementina has anything to do with your anger.

Peter -The media figured her out and dropped her - ya, really. I heard the whole story on the TV. The TV was shooting the open huse,

Or, it is illegal. Which law was broken?

And please, spare me from what she did before the earth was created, as we are not electing her as president, and we are not discussing her morals, and we do not care about it in this particular case. I was interested in the marketing idea (whether you like it or not), and the execution.

The question was whether a marketing idea can work by itself when the value was not there. The answer was no. So that's what we learned.

When you whine about poor souls that wrote an essay and got nothing, do not be a hypocrite. They knew perfectly well what they were doing and why. And they were not puring their heart out, they simply were trying to get a Million-dollar home for $200. When you try to find a fair (in your opinion) way to distribute a million-dollar home for $200, it is simply hilarious. And you do not see it, wow.

If she played anything, she played greed. But aren't we played it every time you see "Buy one, get one free" or something like that?

For the same token you can blame her for exploiting nudity, as dogs for the most part are ... well, not dressed properly.

Bryant- I just wrote "It did not work, she could not generate enough interest. Part of the problem is that the house is in provincial Ocala, and be it in trendy Miami, cosmopolitan New York, snobbish Chicago, or leisurely sophisticated San Francisco, it actually could have worked."

It echoes what you rightfully noted in your comment

Chris - this is exactly true. There are many conditions for things to succeed and not always the stars align as we would like. In this case it was a location. Very private and secluded, it automatically put it in danger of not being able to get a big crowd to participate.

But she tried, and gave it a very fair shot, and no matter what people say about her (this is a different topic whatsoever), she was gracious about the whole thing.

Just recently I wrote a blog about a success, that NOBODY saw. Everyone predicted a failure, but they succeed (http://activerain.com/blogsview/1064037/post-auction-shock)

Kudos to those with vision, determination, and skills. Isn't it what makes a great agent?

Thank you for your comment