HGTV built this high-tech sweepstakes home in Bluffton. Here’s how you can win it

Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton is about to get a lot more famous, and a bit more modern.

The neighborhood has been selected as the location for Home and Garden Television’s Smart Home 2018 sweepstakes, which saw the construction of a modern “smart” house that will be given away in a drawing later this year.

This isn’t the first home to be built in the Lowcountry as part of the contest. In 2008, for what was then called the HGTV Green Home giveaway, a house was constructed in a community called Tradition Hilton Head near what is now the Margaritaville area in Hardeeville.

Since then, green and smart homes have been built and given away across the nation, from Plymouth, Massachusetts to Scottsdale, Arizona as part of the contest.

The home is being designed by Tiffany Brooks, season 8 winner of “HGTV Star,” who in a video on the giveaway’s website calls Palmetto Bluff “one of the Lowcountry’s best kept secrets” and “a perfect coastal destination for nature enthusiasts and fans of authentic southern cuisine.”

Brooks goes on to describe the home she designed as a “true southern escape” that combines charm with modern elements.

“This custom home in Moreland Village combines classic Lowcountry architecture with the latest technology to create a true retreat,” said a post on the Palmetto Bluff Facebook Page.

The roughly 2,850-square-foot home’s design will feature an open floor plan with a master bedroom on the first floor and two additional bedrooms and a flex space upstairs. Colors will be kept muted in favor of a more textural asthetic, Brooks said in a video on the site.

It will also feature such modern amenities as a hidden virtual reality and gaming room and smart windows in the master bedroom, which can “change opacity at the touch of a button,” an HGTV press release said.

The home’s construction is documented on the website in an extensive photo gallery, and a style gallery that details all of the decor choices. HGTV even brought in someone to build a “Minecraft” replica of the home and give a tour of it.

The home is just one part of a prize package that will include a 2018 Mercedes-Benz hybrid car and $100,000 provided by Quicken Loans, the release said. The value of the prize package will be revealed on March 15.

HGTV media relations specialist Matt Kothe said that Palmetto Bluff plantation fees will not be included in the prize package, but the money given away with the home was included to defray such costs. It is unknown at this time what the tax burden might be, but similar contests in the past have left people with a tax bill that required them to sell the homes they had won.

Those interested in winning the home will be able to enter the sweepstakes starting at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, April 17. You can sign up for reminders at hgtv.com/design/hgtv-smart-home.

This story was originally published February 21, 2018 at 2:47 PM with the headline "HGTV built this high-tech sweepstakes home in Bluffton. Here’s how you can win it."