Paula Welsh didn’t know what to think of the silence on the other end of the line.
Welsh had just phoned her lawyer to ask what he thought of her idea to sell the home she and her husband Robert own in historic downtown Fredericksburg.
“I thought, ‘Oh God, he thinks we’re nuts,’” Welsh recalled.
And, at first, the scheme does seem a bit, well, bonkers. While “comps,” or comparable home sales in the historic district routinely top $1 million, the Welshes have hatched a plan wherein one lucky — scratch that, worthy — person can own the singular six-bedroom, five-bath, 5,800-square-foot residence for $200.
That’s the price of a ticket for the “write your way home” essay contest, in which aspiring homeowners must describe in 250-500 words why they want to live in downtown Fredericksburg.
The contest, which opens on Friday and runs through September, will be judged by a panel featuring representatives from the boards of two local nonprofits, the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank and Fredericksburg SPCA. Both organizations will receive six-figure donations if the contest sells at least 15,000 tickets, enough to cover the $1.8 million sales price and contest expenses, plus the cost of prize taxes for the winner.
It turns out the Welshes’ lawyer didn’t think they were nuts at all; he was snickering under his breath because he’d recently entered — and lost out on — a similar, skill-based contest for a home in Ireland.
“We’re hoping that someone who could use the house and would really appreciate the property will win,” Robert Welsh said. “That’s our anticipation.”
‘We have to do something more creative’
The Welshes lived in the home at 1200 Prince Edward Street for five years, during which time they grew accustomed to horse and carriage tours pausing out front for passengers to take pictures.
“When it first happened, Robert brought them coffee, because he thought it was a one-off,” recalled Paula Welsh. “Then, we realized it would be five or six days a week, and our dogs could hear the hooves six blocks away.”
While they eventually got used to the trotting and tourists, the Welshes, who have in their care not just the dogs but also two grandchildren with autism, quickly found themselves in need of a bigger yard.
“It just wasn’t suitable for us,” Paula Welsh said.
They listed their home for $1.8 million this past December, and said that it immediately generated interest from prospective buyers.
Then, President Donald Trump took office in January and began making sweeping cuts to the federal government, a flurry of policies that the Welshes contend diminished interest in the local real estate market.
“The next week, everything went dead,” Paula Welsh said. “We go from nine or 10 showings in a week to one or two in seven months… “We’ve never had a house take this long to sell. We’ve sold houses in a day.”
The couple considered other avenues, such as turning the home into an Airbnb, but the city’s restrictions on such properties downtown made that a nonstarter. They even briefly considered opening a bed and breakfast, but after having sold their businesses to become semi-retired, that wasn’t an attractive option, either.
“I’m like, ‘We have to do something more creative. This is intolerable,” Paula Welsh recalled.
A unique plan for a unique property
Then one night, she found it: a raffle. But just as quickly as the proverbial light bulb fired, it went out: Raffles are illegal in Virginia.
“But that just put me down the rabbit hole,” Paula Welsh said. “I thought, ‘What about a skill-based contest?’”
Welsh said she used AI to research the legality and logistics of the plan, then set out to find others who have sold their homes by similar means, ultimately exchanging emails with about a dozen people.
One couple won their home and farm in a contest in the 1980s.
“So, when they were ready to sell, they wanted to do it again,” Paula Welsh said.
Another individual ran a successful contest only to receive 12 complaints afterwards, including one that was sent to his state’s attorney general.
To avoid similar heartburn, the Welshes have spent more than four months consulting with lawyers specializing in real estate and gambling, an area that they’re ensuring doesn’t come into play. Since laws governing contests vary by country, the contest is limited to people living in the United States.
The couple ultimately deeded the home to Edward & Lewis LLC, (named for the cross streets on which the property sits) which technically owns it and serves as the company operating the contest.
As the Welshes learned more about their home, they started to think bigger than simply getting it off the market.
They received a binder about the property’s history from the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc. (HFFI), which revealed that 1200 Prince Edward Street stood at various points as a college dormitory, medical clinic and apartment building until 2004, when it suffered extensive damage in a structure fire.
It sat boarded up and vacant for nearly eight years before local real estate developer Mike Degan conceived its current configuration during a wholesale 2012 renovation.
After it sat vacant for nearly eight years following a structure fire, 1200 Prince Edward St. underwent a complete renovation in 2012. (Photo courtesy of homes.com)
The Welshes, who are originally from Pittsburgh and moved here in 1999, said they were also struck by Fredericksburg’s expansive presence — including 40 blocks of Caroline Street — on the National Register of Historic Places.
“That’s where we were like, well, you could do something for Fredericksburg, too,” Paula Welsh said.
A good ‘deed,’ regardless of who wins
It wasn’t just local real estate trends that concerned the Welshes during the first few months of the Trump administration.
Having donated to the regional food bank in the past, they understood the potential of cuts to SNAP benefits included in the One Big Beautiful Spending Bill to increase strain on the charity, which distributes between 7.5 and eight million meals per year, according to CEO Dan Maher.
“That really upset us,” Robert Welsh said.
Maher said he was “blown away” when the couple approached him two weeks ago with a way to feed two birds with one scone.
“I thought, this is incredibly creative, didn’t know it could even be done, but they’ve vetted it clearly,” Maher said. “And so this is an awesome way of raising some funds for the community at the same time as getting rid of an asset for themselves.”
Maher explained that the food bank thinks of contributions in terms of meals generated. Every dollar generates two meals.
In this case, a $250,000 donation would equate to 500,000 meals.
“I mean, there’s still a substantial volume we would need to be producing elsewhere, but boy, what an impact that could have in terms of helping us toward our annual volume output,” said Maher, who added that he wouldn’t be surprised to see demand increase to 10 million meals annually within the next couple of years.
The SPCA, meanwhile, would put the money toward a mobile operation to spay and neuter animals in the area, thereby reducing the stray population.
“We’re pretty psyched about both of those opportunities,” Paula Welsh said.
The contest will utilize a third-party app to batch process all of the entries and ensure that they meet all of the criteria. The top 1,500 entries will ultimately go before an eight-person panel for judging.
All of the judges are community members, including three each from the boards of the Food Bank and SPCA.
They’ve placed a maximum cap of 20,000 tickets. If fewer than 15,000 tickets are sold, the winning entrant will receive 75% of the prize money, with the rest going to fees.
But Paula Welsh isn’t too concerned with that prospect.
“I was the top Girl Scout seller eight years in a row,” she said. “If we don’t sell that many tickets, I have to be very disappointed in myself.”
