ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — The HGTV Dream Home 2024 is evidently going to be a home for another person, not the person who won it.
Home and Garden Television designed, built and decorated the 3,300 square foot $2 million house in St. Augustine’s gated Pelican Reef neighborhood.
Thousands of people entered a contest to win the marsh front mansion. In May, HGTV announced the winner was teacher Marie Fratta of New York.
Weeks after the announcement, the house went on the market for $1,999,990, according to Zillow.
Six days later, the first person to see the house put the first offer down "and paid cash for it," Rebecca Staples said. She is the realtor for the property.
Because of contractual reasons, she could not discuss how the house is connected to a cable television channel. But, based on First Coast News' prior reporting, the address is the same as the HGTV Dream Home.
Staples said the interested buyer "fell in love with it instantly. And unfortunately, some other people wanted to make it their own as well, but they were not fast enough. So it’s generated quite a bit of attention."
The sale is now pending.
The sellers chose to put the house on the market because "they live in a different state and have no desire to relocate. They do already have a vacation property in another state as well, near the beaches. They just recently purchased that one," Staples said, without revealing the sellers' name. "They just figured that they’re not going to put it to as much use as they think they should, so they decided to sell it."
The house comes fully furnished; there is even silverware in the kitchen.
Staples believed the interested buyer "got a deal. Absolutely. But the sellers wanted to make sure it moved quickly. So, I followed their instructions and did what they wanted."
As for the bulkhead that the builders had to get approval for – after it was already built – from the state and the city, Staples said no one has asked about it.
"No, not at all," she said.