Maine Inn Hits the Market for $125 and 200 Words

• March 11th 2015

by Lark Turner

For a one-time fee of $125 and a well-written 200-word essay, you could be the next owner of the Center Lovell Inn in Lovell, Maine.

The inn at 1107 Main Street (map), which overlooks Kezar Lake in Lovell, has been owned for the last 22 years by Janice Sage. It’s 210 years old, comes with two outbuildings and sits on 12 acres.

Perhaps the main reason that Sage is parting with the inn in this way is that she also acquired the place by winning a similar essay contest.

“There’s a lot of very talented people in the restaurant business who would like to have their own place but can’t afford it,” Sage told the Portland Press-Herald. “This is a way for them to have the opportunity to try.”

Sage is hoping to garner a minimum of 7,500 entries, each coming in with a $125 entry fee, which will allow her to effectively “sell” the place for $937,500 and retire comfortably. (Realtors, Sage says, have suggested a $905,000 list price.) If she gets exactly 7,500 entries, the contest winner will also receive $20,000. The entries, according to the contest rules, should be typed, well-structured, come in at 200 words or less and be postmarked by May 7. They’ll be judged based on the “structure of essay (introduction, body and conclusion), creativity, thought and the conveyance of capability and desire to operate a Country Inn,” according to the rules.

Whoever wins can’t just turn around and flip the property for a profit, though. The contest rules ask that the winner operate the inn for at least a year. Renovations will have to be muted, at least on the outside; the contest rules demand the existing buildings and any new ones be painted white with “forest green, hunter green or black roofing and shutters.”

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/maine_inn_hits_the_market_for_the_price_of_125_and_200_words/9630.