Terms of Use

The short version

Short the Ask is a game. You forecast whether a seller will have to cut a home's asking price, you stake in-game tokens on your call, and you are scored on how right you are. The tokens are points, not money. Play fairly, use one account, only submit houses and photos you are allowed to share, and understand that nothing here is advice about buying or selling a home. By creating an account or using the app or website you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy.

Who we are

The app and shorttheask.com are run by Xuberent Technologies (“we”). You can reach us at xuberenttechnologies@gmail.com.

Who can play

• You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority where you live if that is higher.
• One account per person. Do not share an account or create extra ones.
• You are responsible for keeping your sign-in details private and for what happens under your account.
• The game is currently offered in the United States and covers listings in the Orlando, Florida area.

Tokens are not money

• Tokens are the game's only currency. You get 1,000 when you sign up and 100 a day when you claim them. You stake them on forecasts and spend them on live markets.
• Tokens have no monetary value. They cannot be bought, sold, transferred, withdrawn, cashed out, or exchanged for anything, in the app or anywhere else. There are no purchases, deposits, or prizes with monetary value.
• Tokens, balances, rankings and any other in-game score are a licence to play, not property. We may adjust, reset, or remove them, for example to correct an error, to re-balance the game, or when an account breaks these terms.
• A market or forecast may be voided, with stakes returned, when a listing is withdrawn or when we could not resolve it fairly. Trades placed after a market has effectively closed may be unwound.

How markets and forecasts resolve

A market asks whether a listing's publicly advertised asking price will fall strictly below a strike price before the home first goes pending or sells. It resolves YES if the ask drops below the strike first, NO if the home goes pending or sells first with the ask at or above the strike, and it is voided if the listing is withdrawn before either happens. An ask equal to the strike is not below it: a cut to exactly $900,000 does not cross a $900,000 strike. We resolve on public facts, entered and checked by our team, and our determination of the outcome is final. If we later find a resolution was wrong we may correct it and adjust balances accordingly. Odds shown in the app come from what players forecast and trade; they are not our view and not a prediction by us.

Fair play

You agree not to:

• use bots, scripts, or automation to play, claim tokens, or scrape the app;
• run more than one account, or trade between accounts you control;
• exploit a bug or pricing error instead of reporting it;
• submit false information about a house, a listing, or yourself;
• interfere with the app, other players, or the listings and sellers the game is about;
• use the game for any unlawful purpose, including any form of wagering for value.

We may warn, suspend, or close an account that breaks these rules, and reverse forecasts or trades that came from it.

Houses, photos and other things you submit

• Only add a house that is publicly listed for sale, and only give us a link to the public listing as its source. Do not submit private information about a seller or occupant.
• Only upload photos you took yourself or have the right to share. Do not upload photos copied from a listing site, photos of people, or anything offensive or unlawful.
• Everything you submit is reviewed by our team before it appears and we may decline or remove it for any reason. See what other people can see.
• You keep ownership of your photos and notes. You give us a worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, show, resize and share them within the game and its website for as long as the house is in the game, and you confirm you have the right to grant it. Email us to have a photo taken down.

Not advice, not an appraisal

Short the Ask is entertainment and a way to test your judgement. Nothing in it, including odds, prices, price histories, nearby sales, maps, or anything our team writes, is investment, financial, legal, real-estate or appraisal advice, an offer to buy or sell property, or a statement about any home's value. Listing facts come from public sources and may be late, incomplete or wrong. Do not make a decision about buying or selling a home based on the game. We are not a brokerage, an appraiser, or a licensed real-estate professional, and the game does not involve the sellers or agents of the homes shown.

Homeowners can opt out

The owner of a home in the game, or its listing agent, can ask us not to run a market, odds or forecasts on it. It is free and the same for every owner who asks (how to ask). When we apply a request, any market still open on that home is closed and every position gets back exactly what it cost, and open forecasts get their tokens back. A result that was already on the home's public listing before the request stands. That refund is the whole outcome of a market closed this way.

Our content

The app, website, name, logo, design, text and software are ours or our licensors' and are protected by copyright and trademark law. We give you a personal, non-transferable licence to use the app and website to play the game. Listing details are public facts; listing photos shown from other websites belong to their owners. Map imagery is provided by Esri and its partners under their terms.

Changes to the game and to these terms

The game is a prototype. We may add, change or remove features, markets, listings, rules, tokens and scores at any time, and we may pause or end the game altogether. If we change these terms materially we will update the date above and tell you in the app; continuing to play after that means you accept the new terms.

Ending your account

You can stop any time by deleting your account (how). We can suspend or close an account that breaks these terms or that has been inactive for a long time. Because tokens have no value, nothing is owed either way when an account closes.

No warranty, limited liability

The app and website are provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including that they will be accurate, uninterrupted, or error-free. To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, profits or goodwill, arising from the game, and our total liability to you for anything arising from these terms or the game is limited to one hundred US dollars. Some places do not allow these limits, in which case they apply to the extent permitted.

Disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, and any dispute will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Florida. Before going to court, email us; most problems are a mistake we can fix quickly.

If you got the app from Apple's App Store or TestFlight

• These terms are between you and Xuberent Technologies, not Apple. Apple is not responsible for the app or its content and has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for it.
• Your licence to the app is limited to Apple-branded devices you own or control, as allowed by the App Store terms, and may be used by other accounts associated with you via Family Sharing or volume purchasing.
• If the app fails to conform to any warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund any purchase price (there is none; the app is free). Apple has no other warranty obligation, and any other claim, loss, or expense attributable to a failure to conform is our responsibility.
• We, not Apple, are responsible for addressing any claim relating to the app, including product liability, legal or regulatory compliance, and consumer protection claims, and for investigating and resolving any claim that the app infringes a third party's intellectual property.
• You confirm that you are not located in a country subject to a US government embargo or designated as a terrorist-supporting country, and that you are not on any US government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
• Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you.

Contact

Questions about these terms: xuberenttechnologies@gmail.com. For help with the game, see Support.