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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Virginia woman holds contest to give away $1.5 million farmhouse

Carol Carper always wanted a pretty house.

Ideally, it would be a farm: a place where the Colorado native could raise her solid black Morgan horses. Her dream came true 21 years ago in the form of a 58-acre, $1.5 million house in Virginia called Newstead Farm.

But now she wants to give her dream away to someone with $233 and 200 words.

Carper, 70, is holding an essay contest to determine who will receive the more than 100-year-old farmhouse. She expects 7,000 people worldwide to apply and pay the $233 entry fee, which will cover the value of the house with a bonus of about $100,000. Applicants only need to write 200 words telling her why they want to own Newstead Farm.

If 7,000 people apply, the contest winner will receive the additional $100,000.

"It’s a very special place," she said. "To me, it’s just perfect, and I would like to see if it’s possible to turn it over to someone who would love it as much as I do."

The contest will run until Sept. 21, 2016. Carper will narrow it down to 20 finalists, and then three anonymous panelists will select the winner.

Carper got the idea from a friend, who told her about an essay contest earlier in the year that awarded the Center Lovell Inn in Maine. Carper liked the idea of being able to read what the next owner wanted to do with the property.

The maintenance of her 58 acres isn’t much of a problem for Carper. The real issue, she said, is living secluded in the country far away from medical facilities.

Carper said she is also ready to retire from planning weddings and move to the West Coast to live close to her son in California — even though he disagrees with how she’s getting rid of the house.

He declined to comment.

She will sell her four remaining Morgan horses and her Katahdin sheep. But she said she will keep memories of hosting elaborate garden parties on the house’s three porches, playing her Steinway O baby grand piano for friends and hosting weddings at the farmhouse.

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Carper’s mother, Lee, said she remembers hiking and cooking with her daughter when she would visit from Golden, Colorado.

"It was nice to reminisce and talk about old times and new times because we don’t see each other very often," the 89-year-old said.

Carper said while she loves her farm, it is time to move on.

"Everything comes to an end sometime," she said. "I think it’s time for me to do that because I love it and don’t want to have it go downhill at all."

Contact Brooke Baitinger at bbaitinger@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @BaitingerBrooke

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