Sarasota's latest real estate-related accolade might not make residents too proud. The city is home to the ugliest house in America.
More than 5,000 people voted online and the home in the 1900 block of 32nd Street in Sarasota won by a virtual landslide, said Lanese Querner, spokeswoman for HomeVestors.
HomeVestors sponsors the competition for its franchisees as an homage to its well-known "We Buy Ugly Houses" motto.
"It may have been an ugly year for residential real estate but our business is ugly every year," said John Hayes, president and chief executive officer of HomeVestors of America.
The winners were announced at HomeVestors' annual convention in Orlando on Thursday.
The Sarasota home that took grand prize was valued at $86,400 as of Jan. 1 and sold for $30,800 on Oct. 1, according to Sarasota Property Appraiser records.
Before it was sold, fines on the house were nearly 10 times its selling price. The house had accumulated nearly $275,000 in fines and additional code violations topped $25,000, said Gregory Weinstein.
A HomeVestors franchisee, it was Weinstein who entered the home in the not-so-flattering competition.
"This particular entry was so bad," Querner said.
The home's doors had been ripped out and it had become a haven for squatters and drug addicts.
Weinstein even had to enlist the help of local law enforcement to get rid of all the squatters that had taken up residence in the house.
"The filth, trash and remnants from squatters left this house totally repulsive and a menace to the community," Weinstein said.
The home is now being gutted and owners hope to turn it from a blight on the neighborhood to an affordable home for a first-time homebuyer.
A panel of HomeVestors judges narrowed the field to 10 from the more than 50 homes entered in the contest. Texas took the cake for the most entries to make the top 10 with homes in Fort Worth, San Antonio and Dallas taking second-, fifth- and sixth-place respectively.
Most would think homeowners would shy away from entering the competition but with a grand prize of a $100,000 interest-free loan toward their next purchase of a HomeVestors property, owners like winner Gregory Weinstein jumped at the chance.
The two-bedroom, one-bath home was built in 1959 and is in the process of being completely gutted.
It's estimated that more than 260 HomeVestors franchisees throughout the nation will have purchased almost 7,000 homes by the end of the year.
Nightmare on 32nd St.
2ND PLACE: Fort Worth, Texas
3RD PLACE: Phoenix, Ariz.
