Mansionmania Tournament: Round 3, Heat 2
 

Mansionmania continues with our Sweet 16 3rd-round contestants. You will choose among each pair of houses with the following assumptions:

• The purchase price for you is $0.
• All maintenance, utilities, property taxes, HOA fees, and cleaning is included.
• You must live in the home for the rest of your life.
• You can't travel more than 100 miles from home (via google maps drive time) other than 1 two-week vacation each year.
• You get $250,000 per year as a living allowance
• You get an additional living allowance at the cheaper home, which will be valued at 1% of any cost difference annually. I will note this amount in the poll.
• You get the furnishings. If unfurnished, you get an allowance that will give you mid-grade furniture in every room.
• You get any vehicles in the garage. But only the garage - nothing parked outside.

I encourage you to click on the maps in the listings to see the general location and neighborhood.

Also, I will only enter contestants if they have a sufficient number of photos to judge, as determined by me.

Your entries in this heat are:

Wyoming:

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...1_M88490-96176

New Hampshire:

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...2_M90471-61146

The more we talked about it yesterday, the more I realize that the difference between a $250,000 stipend and a $700,500 stipend is huge. And the reason is services, not buying stuff. For $700,500 I can buy myself a full-time personal chef, a full-time personal trainer, and get things like massages and bookkeeping frequently. I can't get that for $250,000, or at least not full-time. I need to keep that in mind because at this point in the tournament all of the houses are going to meet my needs.

That said, Wyoming. I want to sleep in that bubble bed and see those views. The New Hampshire house is great and it's near Boston, but in this heat I still have to go Wyoming. I could thrive in that Wyoming house and I like the culture of the West.

Boy that Wyoming property is incredible.

But the NH place is awfully nice as well and again, right on the ocean. It has far better proximity options within 100 miles also. And that's a BIG stipend difference.

Yeah, I'm going NH on this one.

Wyoming looks like it was constructed after taking a poll of a thousand outdoorsmen for what they would want in their dream house. And I love that rustic modern deco look, too. Plus the land and freedom to pee off the back patio with only coyotes and bears to stare at you (it's cold up here, don't judge).

New Hampshire has way more of an elegant feel to it, almost to where I would feel guilty if I rubbed against a wall of dropped a crumb. But, you have access to way way more civilization and nearly three times the stipend, plus a good five months to enjoy the beach life every year not to mention access to Boston.

I think New Hampshire is it, even if I'm not particularly wanting to live an east coast elitist lifestyle.

NH.

I'm born an east coast guy and home is where the heart is even if it does involve the occasional fisticuffs and dorky accents.

Plus the stipend and Boston.

I mean, I don't like people, but I also kind of like them at the same time. I don't think I would be happy being so secluded in that Wyoming home for 50 weeks out of the year.

I've also got no love for New Hampshire, but our discussion about money yesterday has pushed me a bit more toward caring about the stipend. $450,000 is a massive difference in lifestyle.

Put a tent up in the Wyoming spot and I will live there no problem forever. That is my dream spot right there

The problem I have with basing my decision on the stipend is that a large stipend can disappear if the house is facing a cheaper one in the next round. If the NH house wins and faces a $19M house next round, its stipend will be $250k.

This is true.. and now I'm back to caring less about the stipend. Damn it.

I dunno, Alaska is beautiful as well until you take a back road and you can barely see the road through a swarm of hungry mosquitoes and figure out that you can actually walk under a moose if you had to because you've gotten that close up and personal.

(ask Bwana if there's doubt on that story)

Guess it all depends on your trust in civilization in this round.

NH house is far north. Cold ass ocean. Very short beach season and fishing season. Plus the marsh is going to smell like ass every 12 hours, plus I’m not dealing with Patriot/Bruins fans.

Having road a motorcycle from Missouri to Alaska I know all about it. I would still pick Wyoming property over every single property in this tournament. That place is my dream location and would honestly live in an outfitter tent there for the rest of my life if someone gave it all to me.



After the past 5-7 years of seeing what our civilization has to offer, I trust maybe at maximum .5% of it

That WY spot is just amazing. Have to take it.

NH place is really damn nice, and I hated to vote against it.

This is one of the few times I voted location (Wyoming) versus stipend (NH). I almost always take the money, but not this round

Yeah, that was a bit of a design mistake on my part. I should've made the stipend a function of the most expensive house in the tournament rather than the most expensive house in each heat. But we'll live with this system given our progress so far.

Well. winters in Wyoming last how long? Brrrr. But NH isn't much better, but 700k samolas a year would probably keep us warm, even around Bahston.

NH it is.

Hard to go against the $$ but Wyoming is just a slice of heaven.

It's round 3 and you're just now coming around to the cash whore life? Welcome to the dark side.

This one is tough. I'm a whore and 500K is lot. But WYO is more appealing than NH.

I stared at the pictures a long time, and I think I can live with NH. As long as I can keep the horse culture off me.

I don't know why I had this lapse, but I was pretty much thinking about the stipend to buy goods and not services. I don't need a lot of stuff, so the base stipend was fine, and the only real service that I spend money on is travel, which is limited by the rules. But then once we started talking about paid masseuses and trainers and chefs and back ticklers (thavirus's gig, but I'm willing to check it out), I realized that the stipend can really add to my quality of life.

The Wyoming house and the river by it are beautiful.. except.. books don't belong in kitchens. That is strange.

I have been, for the most part, ignoring the stipend in all these matches. it only comes into play when I can't choose between the houses/locations. The stipend can change depending on the matchup - so it really is meaningless (in my opinion) especially when all the other costs are already taken care of.

I love both these house. I could be happy in either location. I *think* winters are longer and harder in Wyoming than New Hampshire.

A question: in the movies when NYC people say they are vacationing in the Hamptons, is this the place they are taking about?

I'm going NH this round.

What about cookbooks?

You can redeem yourself by doing another Mansionmania tourney later. This one has been awesome.

I think the Hamptons are on Long Island. We had an early New York house that lost in Round 1. It was more than 100 miles from Manhattan on Long Island, and I think it was in the Hamptons.

I always mix up the Hamptons, the Poconos, and the Catskills when people talk about getting away from New York.

Nah, they are on the far end of Long Island opposite NYC. Like RM said.

I'm out on WY, just too far from anything. While not a big fan of NH, the house, money, and proximity to Boston wins. I wouldn't turn to the dark side and be a Pats/Red Sox fan.

Man.. then they got a LOT of cookbooks..

https://ap.rdcpix.com/934a6cd363ecd0...0_h770_q80.jpg

That all LOOKS cool.. but seems pretty damn infeasible... that is a small-ass kitchen too

How am I the only one here that understands that money is good? ROFL

Anyway, welcome to the dark side!

Yeah, good thing too. I'd have to murder you and bury you in a shallow grave in the back 40.

I'd probably do that myself if I became a Sox/Pats fan. I would ask you to cover the grave with one of your many John Deeres though.

Fair enough. ROFL

Was gonna pick New Hampshire but then I saw the horse steeplechase jumps are photoshopped into the horse arena pic. Something's fishy there.

WYOMING!


(also, New Hampshire's winning horse record reads like the pre-2015 Chiefs)

Now we don't know if the whole house was photoshopped in. Maybe it's just a vacant lot.

This is a first for me as a design option...

https://ap.rdcpix.com/934a6cd363ecd0...0_h770_q80.jpg