The 11 Dollar House.com

I came across a very interesting idea and wanted to share it with all of you…  A man by the name of David, and his family, are taking in entries for $11 and a story of why you should win a renovated home in Edmonton, Alberta.  I encourage you to take a look at this, and for you to enter.

I inquired to David of why he and his family is doing this and what they are looking to get out of it… Here is his responce.

As for the contest itself, the number of entries are around 220.

As for the idea, it’s a combination of things, I guess.  A bit over a year ago, our daughter (6 at the time) asked if we were selling the house, how much would we sell it for.  I asked her how much did she think.  She suggested $5, or something like that.  I laughed, but for whatever reason, I started to think that while $5 wouldn’t be good, a bunch of people paying $5 might mean somebody could get the house.  The actual $11 was the result of working out the mechanics of the contest, more math than anything else, although we did like the sound of The 11 Dollar House.

Since around January of this year, I was fiddling with a website when I had time, but I didn’t want to run anything until I’d finished an addition slated to add a third storey (or a half storey, technically).  I wanted the house to mainly have it’s final form before putting it out there.  By the end of August, this was mostly finished, so off we went, with a little hiccup in September that put our timelines out by a month (which may or may not make a difference, we’ll see).

The date to have all entries in is currently slated for December 31, 2008.

So, what do you think about this social experiment? It’s called a contest, but really it’s a question as to whether or not thousands of people will pay $11 so that one person, a complete stranger to all of them, can get a house mortgage free. Of course, every person paying also hopes that they will be that one person, that complete stranger, who wins. Do you think there are enough people out there with the necessary mix of altruism and selfish (not in a bad way) hope?

What are your thoughts?  Below is the website that you can check out for more info.

The Season of Giving

As we are rapidly approaching the Christmas season, where giving is better than receiving… We want to recruit you to our lending team, Team Chamberlain Group, on Kiva, a non-profit website that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world. You choose who to lend to – whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq – and as they repay the loan, you get your money back.

If you join our lending team, we can work together to alleviate poverty. Once you’re a part of the team, you can choose to have a future loan on Kiva “count” towards our team’s impact. The loan is still yours, and repayments still come to you – but you can also choose to have the loan show up in our team’s collective portfolio, so our team’s overall impact will grow!

Check out the Team Chamberlain Group lending team, and learn more about lending teams on Kiva in general, by clicking here: JOIN THE KIVA CHAMBERLAIN TEAM

Thanks for your serious consideration,
Jared & Rebecca Chamberlain