5
A haunted house, the real kind
Multiple promotions have offered a property with a documented history nobody wanted.
Properties with grim histories are hard to sell — in several US states they are legally "stigmatised" and must be disclosed — so owners have repeatedly turned to contests and raffles to shift them.
The most consistent version is the essay contest: pay a small entry fee, write 200 words on why you want it, best entry wins the house. Skill-based contests are structured this way precisely because the skill element keeps a paid entry lawful where a random draw would not be.
These frequently collapse. If not enough entries come in, the organiser usually has to refund everybody or award a cash prize instead, which is why almost every one of these has a minimum-entries clause buried in its rules.