SEBASTIAN — Scott Bernard’s contest on www.HowToWinMyHouse.com likely will not have a winner when it ends Dec. 17.

The coloring contest he started, in an attempt to unload his remodeled three-bedroom, one-bath 1957 Florida home at 457 Columbus St. he dubbed The Sebastian Chateau, had a paltry 15 entries. The contest, which began in July, cost $49 to enter.“I guess people were skeptical,” Bernard said. “I think society was really used to people scamming other people, so they thought this was a scam when it really wasn’t.”

In the next couple of weeks, Bernard expects he will be busy giving back refunds to those who entered his contest. He was seeking 5,400 entrants to get rid of the home. For each entry fee, $2 would have gone to Bernard’s charity, Support Dance Inc. All but the charitable donation and a $3.50 processing fee will be returned.

Bernard purchased the home at the height of the real estate boom for $217,000 in 2005. He has stopped making payments on the home and is negotiating a deed in lieu of foreclosure with his lender, Bernard said.

Bernard said the contest was a creative way to get rid of the home before turning to desperate measures, such as foreclosing on the home.

“I wanted the banks to see that I was trying to get rid of it the right way,” Bernard said. “I listed it for sale with a broker, I tried to sell it myself and I held this contest.”

Bernard said he is negotiating with his primary lender, on his first loan, on a deed in lieu of foreclosure. That would mean that Bernard would hand over the home’s title to his lender and walk away.

While that might satisfy the primary mortgagee, Bernard said he is having problems negotiating his second mortgage because the bank he obtained the loan from failed and is now run the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC).

He said the FDIC is now selling his delinquent loan to another investor and because of that, they have refused to negotiate with him.

Citing confidentiality, the FDIC declined to comment on Bernard’s case.

“I guess it’s a learning process,” Bernard said. “I can’t make the payments, but they are willing to spend all this money on taking this into foreclosure. If that’s how they’re using the bailout money, it doesn’t make sense to me.”

By Nadia Vanderhoof, TCPalm.com

Tags: contest, foreclosure, lender, sale, Scott Bernard, The Sebastian Chateau

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