... and no one wanted it!
TWICE!
Local car dealer tried giving away a Kia and a home in Florida, pass.
NISKAYUNA -- Billy Fuccillo gave away a dream home on Tuesday. He called it that in his commercial while waving a huuuuuuuuuge key he called "the key to happiness, the key to pleasure, the key to ecstasy."But here's the question: Did anyone want it?
Winners Frank and Shirley Sicko said they did, and were excited to own their first vacation home. But the Clifton Park couple won't move to Florida, and after learning more about the home's history, Frank Sicko sounded unsure about accepting it.
That's because the "dream" three-bedroom house awarded Tuesday inside the Fuccillo Automotive Group store in Niskayuna had once fallen into foreclosure. It is in Cape Coral, Fla., which has been described as an epicenter of the nation's shattered housing market. The 1,400-square-foot home already was turned down once, by an East Syracuse woman who won a similar contest held earlier this summer.
"I wasn't aware of that," Frank Sicko said about an hour after Fuccillo told him by phone that his name had been randomly drawn from about 10,000 others. "I would be sort of concerned about it." said Sicko, a retiree from the Norton Company in Watervliet.
The Sickos won the Florida home and a car as grand prizes in a popular giveaway called Huge-A-Thon that drew thousands to Fuccillo's showrooms during August. Fuccillo said Tuesday that the store sold more than 1,250 vehicles during the promotion.
At 7 p.m. Tuesday, about 50 people and several Fuccillo employees gathered inside the red-white-and-blue-decorated automotive dealership on State Street to observe the drawing for the home and car, which Fuccillo valued at about $150,000.
"I'm really excited about changing someone's life tonight," Fuccillo said just prior to 7 p.m.
Built at the height of the housing boom in 2006, the Cape Coral home fell into foreclosure before being purchased by Fuccillo's company for $70,000. The home could come with considerable cost to the winner, too, because for tax purposes its value will have to be claimed as income.
The home sits on the northern fringes of the Florida city, which has a population of about 162,000 and is famous for its more than 400 canals. Such an abundance of waterfront property made it prime territory for development as the housing market hit its peak.
This house, though, is on a dry lot about 30 minutes from the beach.
"That's an area that was really built up in the boom," said Paula Hellenbrand, a past president of the Cape Coral Association of Realtors and owner of Encore Realty Services.
The area also was one of the hardest hit during the bust.
The house was first assessed at $167,830, according to the Lee County tax assessor's office. Records show the home was purchased with a mortgage valued at about $220,000.
When the market went bust, the house went into foreclosure -- not an uncommon occurrence in Cape Coral. During July, the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area ranked second in the nation for foreclosure activity.
A Fuccillo company called WBF Florida Properties II LLC bought the house in May at its listed price. Fuccillo said he bought the home while shopping for a company in the area.
Cape Coral real estate agents estimate the property's value at between $70,000 and $90,000.
By comparison, just a few years ago the 0.23-acre lot itself was worth at least $80,000, said Century 21 Sunbelt real estate agent JC Curbelo, who brokered Fuccillo's purchase of the house. "We were at the epicenter of the foreclosure problem," Curbelo said.
But when a similar contest was held in Syracuse in June, the East Syracuse woman who won decided not to accept the house, a Fuccillo spokesperson said.
Had she accepted, the woman would have had to claim the value of the home as part of her 2010 income, according to a spokesperson with the state Department of Taxation and Finance. She also would have paid a Florida tax of about $700, real estate agents said. The home's annual property taxes are about $1,700.
The home was given away as part of a contest that began in July. With no purchase necessary, anyone 18 or older with a driver's license could enter to win at Fuccillo locations.
Frank Sicko entered the contest a few weeks ago. "I never thought in a million years I would win."
The Clifton Park man had purchased a Buick and a GMC from Fuccillo. He tried to buy a Hyundai Sonata earlier this year from His Hugeness, but the dealership didn't have the color the family wanted.
As winner of Tuesday's huge drawing, Frank Sicko will now receive a free car, and they have chosen a Hyundai. He thanked Fuccillo.
"I think he's a great man," Frank Sicko said.
