If you're going to delude yourself, you may as well dream big

Super Bowl Fever means different things to different people, especially people who hope to earn a few grand by renting out their houses during Super Bowl Week.

With the $6,900 a day she hopes to get renting out her southwest Houston ranch-style home during Super Bowl week, Tobi Shvartzapel wants to buy a car and take her family to Disney World.

Nicholas Howard III, a barber, could pay off his mortgage with the $25,000 he is asking for a week in his three-bedroom home.

The $8,500 that student Andrew Abrameit wants for a week in his two-bedroom condo would nearly pay a semester's tuition at South Texas College of Law.

Scores of locals have shown interest in renting out their places at breathtaking prices, and many are advertising on Web sites that charge, in some cases, hundreds of dollars.

These poor people not only paid upwards of $250 apiece to have their homes listed on a web page that apparently solicits potential renters, but now their friends and neighbors all know what suckers they are. Seemed almost cruel to read the reaction from the Host Committee and folks in Tampa and San Diego who fell for this pitch about the likelihood these people will cash in, but there you have it. Somewhere, PT Barnum is having a good chuckle.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on September 29, 2003 to Elsewhere in Houston | TrackBack