I like to highlight contests that involve free houses and mortgage payoffs, and this one is a little stranger than most.
Trulia, which should be a subsidiary of Zillow’s if all goes right on the regulatory front, is offering to give away a “freakin’ house” to one lucky person who enters their contest, gets selected for the finals, flies to Las Vegas, and wins a game of War.
To enter the contest, you simply have to head over to their contest website and give up some personal info. Yes, you’ll probably receive some promotional e-mails from their sponsors, including Wayfair and KB Home.
And they’ll ask you to download their app, obviously. But it’s fairly painless and quick.
After that, you have to watch some cheesy videos that ask you to guess where the home is located, what type of kitchen it has, how many bathrooms it contains, and so on. Fast forwarding is helpful here…
Once you complete all five video challenges, you’ll be entered into the Finalist Drawing to win the home. But you don’t really win the home. Huh? Yeah, you actually get a check for $350,000, which actually sounds a lot better than a home in Summerlin, Nevada.
Hey, the house looks great, don’t get me wrong, but I’d rather have $350,000 in my bank account, less taxes.
The drawing will take place on or around October 13, 2014, and the video challenges must be completed by October 10th. So hurry if you want a house, err, a check for $350,000.
By the way, if you want a sneak peek at the home, which you don’t actually win, you can take a look via the contest promotion page. It will help with the challenge questions.
This I suppose is KB’s portion of the promotion, seeing that they are the home builder. I’m assuming the home itself is decorated with furnishings from Wayfair.
Anyway, it doesn’t take all that long to complete the five video challenges and you’ll have a microscopic chance to win $350,000. Sound good?
You Have to Go to Vegas Even Though You Don’t Actually Win a House
You don’t actually get the home in Vegas, as mentioned, but you still have to go there to participate in the grand finale.
Assuming you are one of the three finalists selected during the drawing in October, you will be flown out to Las Vegas on Trulia’s dime and put up in a hotel for two nights.
On November 1st, the three finalists will participate in a game of War, which if you’re not familiar, is one of the most basic card games imaginable.
Simply put, if your card is higher than the dealer’s, you win the hand. Rinse and repeat until there’s a grand finalist.
The winner gets the $350,000 check, but all three finalists receive a $10,000 credit from Wayfair.
So even if you do lose the biggest War bet of your life, you’ll at least walk/fly home with something in your pocket.
Good luck!