» Essay Contest Rules and Prizes

Contest Rules and Prizes

Eligibility

You must be 18 years or older to participate in the essay contest. You must be a legal U.S. resident and residing in the 50 U.S. States and the District of Columbia.
You do not need to be a first time home buyer to be eligible to participate. Employees and immediate relatives of; Down Payment Solutions, Inc., its Vendors and its Advertisers on are not eligible to participate.

Prizes To Be Awarded

All prizes are subject to sufficient valid Essay Contest Entries. In instances of insufficient valid Essay Contest Entries, prizes will be awarded in order beginning with 1st place and followed sequentially until all valid Essay Contest Entries have been awarded a prize. All remaining un-awarded prize funds will not be awarded and we may choose to donate these funds to a charity of our choice.

Place	Prizes	Maximum Number of Winners
1st	***$500.00	One Winner
2nd	***$250.00	One Winner
3rd	***$100.00	One Winner
4th	***$50.00	Three Winners

The contest ends at Midnight September 15, 2005. Mailed entries must be postmarked no later than September 15th. All entries must be received no later than September 30th. Down Payment Solutions, Inc. takes no responsibility for entries which are lost in the Mail. You are encouraged to use the online Entry form.

Winners will be announced October 15, 2005 and listed on the Winners Page. Winners will be notified via e-mail and will be required to respond to this notice. Upon notification, certain documents for tax purposes must be completed to claim your prize. You will have the options, at that time, of down loading the required documents in PDF Format from our site or having these forms mailed to you. Within your e-mail response, you must provide us with which option you are choosing. All forms must be returned within 60 days from the date the contest closes. Checks will be mailed out to winners within 7 days of receipt of all required documents so, the quicker these forms are received the quicker winners will receive prizes.

Essay Contest Entry

There are two methods of entry. Contestants should use only one.

The first method uses our online essay submission form. Upon entry, you will be routed to a confirmation page. This page does not confirm entry, but only confirms the form worked as it should. You will receive an e-mail notification informing you that we have received your entry. This is the ONLY method you will receive any confirmation of entry. Confirmation of entry does not infer a valid Essay Contest entry, but only receipt of your Essay Entry. You are encouraged to save your entry until you have received an e-mail confirmation.

Mailed Entries must be sent to:

Down Payment Solutions, Inc.
Essay Contest
P.O. Box 1406
Plant City, FL 33563

Valid mailed Essay Contest entries will contain the following:

Your First and Last Name
Your Phone Number
Your Fax Number (Optional)
Your Complete Mailing Address
A Valid E-Mail Address
The Essay Title
The Essay Entry Itself

Mailed Essay Contest entries must be typed, double-spaced, on one side of a white 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper for each unique page, each page must be numbered and written in English. The contact information should be contain on the first page just above the Essay Contest entries Title.

We will not disclose entries which have been disqualified, nor the reasons for disqualification.

Essay Contest Questions

If after reading this section, you have questions concerning the Essay Contest, you may e-mail "question @ downpaymentsolutions.com". All correspondence must contain "Contest Question" within the subject line. Due to spam issues, any other format will automatically be deleted. Do not send completed or partial Essay Contest entries for review. These will be deleted.

The availability of this e-mail question format does NOT guarantee a response or an answer which adequately addresses your question. Please limit your questions directly to contest rules. For example, you may want to know if what you are wanting to write about is "Valid" under the topic guidelines. We will be more than happy to say yes or no. We want each of you to have a valid opportunity to win our contest.

Down Payment Solutions, Inc. takes no responsibility for whether you receive a response or not, nor the accuracy of the response you receive. We have no control over the entirety of your Essay Contest submission. You alone are solely responsible for your Essay Contest entry and its content validity as it relates to the Down Payment Solutions, Inc. Essay Contest rules which are contained on this page.

Odds of Winning

The odds of winning are based entirely upon the number of valid Essay Contest entries and the quality of the entirety of your Essay.

Essay Contest

It is suggested to all who wish to participate in the Down Payment Solutions, Inc. Essay Contest, that you have someone review your finished essay before you submit it to:

Make sure it is complete.
Has all the necessary attributes of a quality essay.
Is free from typographical and grammatical errors.
Adequately addresses the topic options for the contest.

Topical Options for Essay Contest Submissions

Valid Essay Contest Entries will fall under one or all of the following primary topics:

Mortgage Industry
Why Buy in Your Community
Real Estate

These 3 primary topics may not be used as your Essay Title. As examples of how you would use these primary topics:

If you were to choose the "Mortgage Industry" as your primary topic, you may wish to write specifically about the "FHA Loan Program" and its benefits for home buyers.
If you choose instead to write about "Why Buy in Your Community" you may want to write about all the attributes of "My Town" and why someone might wish to purchase a home in your community.
Finally, if you were to choose "Real Estate" as your topic, you might choose to write about "What to look for in a Real Estate Agent".

These are only very generic examples of how you could use the primary essay topics in your Essay Contest entry. Use your imagination and creativity to your advantage as each primary topic covers potentially hundreds of thousands of highly relative subjects you can choose to write about.

Essay Contest Requirements

For the purpose of the Down Payment Solutions, Inc. Essay Contest, all entries should follow these basic essay guidelines.

A Introduction. The introduction should introduce to the reader to what your specific topical entry is about. The objective is to show the reader that you are knowledgeable about the subject and what they can expect to learn from your essay.
A Body which stimulates interest within the topic and presents detailed analysis or opinion based upon factual evidence and first hand experiences. There is no set criteria for format other than the above, however, be certain to to identify all sources of ideas and information used to formulate your positions within your essay.
A Conclusion which will summarize the sum total of your essay from research and analysis to personal experience. The conclusion should provide readers with confidence in your Essay presentation, accuracy and ideas.

Your Essay Contest entry should include end notes and a bibliography where applicable.

End Notes: Provides the sources of your information and ideas and are placed at the end of the Essay.
Bibliography: Lists the works you have referred to or consulted in order to write your Essay.

Possible sources for your Essay Contest entry: Academic Journals, News Magazines, Newspapers, Books, Government Documents, Publications from Research Organizations, and the Internet.

Encyclopedias are not a valid resource.
You are highly discouraged from using the Internet as your only source of research. If using Internet sources, you must include the Authors Name and URL source being quoted as part of your Bibliography.
The minimum word count for your Essay Contest entry is 1500 words. There is no maximum word count. This word count does not include your contact information, End Notes and the Bibliography.
You are encouraged to select a topic you know or have a great interest in.
No Essay Contest entry may have been previously published in its entirety or in part.
You must be the original author of the essay.
All entries must be written in English.

Essays Contest entries may be disqualified if:

It is not on topic
It does not meet the minimum word count.
It requires end notes or a bibliography and does not contain one.
It uses an encyclopedia for reference.
It is post marked after September 15th, 2005.
The Essay plagiarizes someone else's work.

How we will judge your Essay

The final winners will be selected exclusively by the President of Down Payment Solutions, Inc. who will account for how the Essay entry fits the Essay Contest rules.

The President of Down Payment Solutions, Inc. will judge using the following criteria:

The quality of research used.
The quality of your analysis of the topic selected.
Your style and mechanics.
The largest weight will be placed on the educational value and general readability of your Essay.

General Legal Notices

Participation in this contest is Voluntary. As such, you agree to hold Down Payment Solutions, Inc. and its ownership harmless from all perceived and actual damages. If any portion of this contest, legal notice and notices contained within our Privacy Policy/Terms of Use are found invalid, your participation is your consent that the remainder of disclaimers remain fully intact.

This contest falls fully under or privacy policy/terms of use guidelines. Be certain you read and understand our policies. We will not disclose your e-mail address, mailing address or phone number except in the course of: Properly executed legal documents requiring this information be disclosed or in the course of litigation.

***All prizes are subject to state law. Our preference is to simply "Cut a Check", however, Down Payment Solutions, Inc. may substitute cash prizes for equal valued Goods to include U.S. Savings bonds that have the same face value as the Cash Prize based upon today's Terms. For example, if a $100.00 U.S. Savings bond with a 5 year maturity costs $50.00 then a fourth place winner may receive a $100.00 U.S. Savings Bond instead of a cash prize. Where state law prohibits the award of Cash prizes, winners will be notified of the amount won and the options available to include the option to select an item of equal value to the cash prize won by the contestant. In any instance of substitution, the item cost cannot exceed the cash prize and cannot be of a immoral or illegal nature as determined by the President of Down Payment Solutions, Inc. In those states where no contest participation is allowed, we simply cannot legally award any prize and that prize will be awarded to another contestant.

Your Essay Contest entry, regardless of whether your entry was valid or won our contest, gives us the right:

To use your name, city and state in any future contest promotions.
To reprint your Essay Contest entry in part or whole in future promotions and news media.
To sell the rights to reprint your Essay Contest entry to other publications whether print or Internet based.
The exclusive copyright to publish your Essay contest entry for display and indexing within the Internet, search engines and any such publication we may wish to promote your Essay Contest entry in.

In all instances of publication, you will receive sole recognition as the original author of the Essay Contest entry.

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