Name That House - The Answer

Yesterday I asked if anyone knew the significance of this house in Sonoma, CA:

If you guess this is the 2009 HGTV Dream Home, you are correct. When we heard the home was in Sonoma this year we decided to stop by on the way back to our daughter's college and check it out in person. It did a little Google searching and found where it was located in the small town.

We've been following the annual Dream Home contest for several years and this is probably the smallest house they've ever done, though the total $2 million prize package is about the same as in previous years. This year's prize does not include cash. In past years there was usually $250,00 included in the package. I wonder if the high cost of land and building in California had something to do with that. I'll address the significance of the missing cash in a minute.

Here are a couple of other shots I took around the property. First the two car garage and small vineyard that's located adjacent to the main house:

Here's the sideview of the house. As you can see we were not the only ones stopping by on Saturday. A tour was underway just as we arrived ($20 per person) and other folks like us were just driving up and taking a look:

And here's the backyard: Of course, everybody that has seen the house either on TV or in person would love to be the person chosen as the eventual winner (in March). However, there are issues involving winning a house like this that don't get shown on the TV show. In the small print somewhere in the rules it says "winner responsible for all taxes", and let me tell you, taxes on $2 million is nothing to sneeze at.

That money is treated as ordinary income which means that on April 15, 2010 the winners will be facing a tax bill somewhere north of $700,000 just for winning the contest. And when he or she has figured out how to pay that, they can look forward to an annual property tax bill of something like $25-30,000.

If you want to know how it's worked out for some past winners, look at this article about the folks who won the home in Texas a few years ago.

I mentioned the lack of a cash prize in this year's package. That cash kept the folks in Texas going for awhile, but without the cash prize this year, the winners may be in for a tough time.

Of course, if we win, I won't turn it down. I may have to sell it to pay the taxes, but I'll make it work somehow.