How would you like to own a house in Silicon Valley, in the town of Los Altos, which is over 5,000 square feet and has 5 bedrooms and 5 1/2 bathrooms? How about if it included a wine cellar and a guest house? And to top it off, you only have to pay a total of $150 for the house.
That's not a down payment, that's the total you would be paying for the home. What's the catch?
You would have to wine the Fourth Annual Silicon Valley Dream House Raffle, the proceeds of which benefit the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
If you don't win first place, there are plenty of other prizes you can win, such as an Audi Q5, a BMW X3, and a Mercedes-Benz C250 Coupe. As a matter of fact, you have a one in fifty chance of winning a prize. Tickets are $150 each, or less if you buy in quantities of three or five.
You can get more information by going to:
www.SiliconValleyRaffle.com
Too much chance these things are rigged. (I don't know these people at all, but just in general I would be skeptical myself - just my opinion.) I don't think a prudent investor would chance it ... unless they are suckers like the Madoff investors!
ReplyDeleteYou have an interesting point. This is obviously not an investment, nor even a speculation, just a raffle. I know very little about the organization, other than what I read on their web site. The organization's cash doubled from 2012 to 2013. Here is a link to their financials:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ybca.org/about/annual-reports/2012-2013-audited-financial-statement
Don't forget the 1 million you have to give them in cash to pay for the income tax if you really win the house... And the 40k per year of property tax :-)
ReplyDeleteThat's right. I bet not many people think about the tax consequences of winning prizes, especially high end ones. In this case, the contest offers a cash prize option to the winner.
ReplyDelete