Frenchman offers farmhouse in online quiz competition

Are you good at general knowledge? Would you like to own a home near Paris for only $37? If so, this is for you. Out of work Frenchman Stéphane Iglicki has come up with a novel way of paying off his debts.

You never know what surprises may await you in your email inbox when you switch on your computer in the morning. My surprise this morning came in the form of an email from a friend containing a link to an article in French regional daily Nord Eclair . After unilaterally declaring that my apartment home was not big enough, my friend went on with earnest well-meaning to suggest that I should try to win myself a farmhouse in the countryside. So I read the story and went to find out more.

The story concerns married father of three Stéphane Iglicki. He may be unemployed and in debt, but he’s fighting back. His home, which is less than 100km from Paris in the Eure-et-Loire village of Meslay-le-Vidame, failed to find a buyer when he tried to sell it in what is a cash-strapped housing market, so he decided to sell it using more unconventional means. Real estate companies put its value at between $565k and $665k.

The idea is simple. After submitting the entry fee of €30 ($37) to the competition website, participants will be sent a list of quiz questions which, once opened online, gives them a fixed time limit to tick the right responses. The person who gets the most correct answers wins the home, comprising 700m², and over 3000m² of land. The name of the lucky winner will be formally announced on May 11 2011 and the deeds are to be transferred to him or her by a team of lawyers.

Competition promises to be relatively stiff, with 20,000 being set as the maximum number of participants, but you can increase your chances by participating in more than one quiz, with different questions each time. The revenue from the 20,000 subscriptions limit corresponds to the value of the house plus the cost of creating the competition, says M Iglicki.

Pictures of the house and its interior are available on the site, along with other details. A 220m² three-bedroom home already exists within its walls, and the rest, including 260m² of loft space, would need to be refitted.

Stéphane Iglicki, who left his well-paid job as an investment advisor to start up a financial consultancy company which subsequently failed, says that he has faith in his idea and that in any case “Whatever happens, I’d prefer to fight to the end instead of giving up and just handing the house over to the bank.”

So do you fancy your chances? Click here to visit the competition site and who knows, this time next year you may be the proud owner of your very own pied-à-terre in France ....................... Bon chance !