Scott Lewis had an idea for enabling a house-seller to avoid short-selling: By giving away the house to someone who writes the best essay about how to “improve your city.”
He can explain.
Paul Bass Photo
Lewis (pictured) is the New Haven man who was framed for a murder by a crooked New Haven detective and spent 18 years behind bars before a federal judge ordered him freed.
Lewis has since developed a successful real estate business.
Which is where this latest idea comes in.
He has a client who owes the bank more than his house is worth. He wants to sell the house. But he doesn’t want to destroy his credit by selling it for less than he owes on his mortgage. “They probably wouldn’t get credit for another five or six years,” Lewis said.
So Lewis teamed up with a woman named Natalia Xiomara to experiment with giving away a house like this in a contest — and collecting enough money in the process to pay off the morgage.
They set up a contest called “EcoDev” through a Church Street organization Xiomara runs called Employment Resource Team LLC.
They have invited anyone who would like to win the house (pictured at the top of the story) — a 4,500-plus square-foot 1940s single-family on Naugatuck’s Summerfield Street — to write an essay describing “a plan to improve their city.” Click here for the web page that details the contest and shows you how to submit. The contest has a Dec. 15 deadline.
It costs $10 to enter the contest. That’s how Lewis and Xiomara plan to cover the costs. They need 30,000 entries to make it work.
If too few people enter? “People will be refunded their money,” Xiomara said, “or we will extend the deadline” until enough enter.
In the meantime, she said, entries will be read and sorted as soon as they come in.