Just read this on propertyowl, What an idea, could help get you on the move!
I am thinking of going into the house raffle/lottery/competition business. Why? Because people appear to be making cash from such activities.
As another property hits the pages of the press for being offered as a prize in a lottery (sorry competition), I decided to delve a little deeper and actually read the terms and conditions of this Cheltenham property raffle. What amazed me the most was a clause that allows the owners/promoters to charge 35% for admin.
This is great for the promoters when one takes into account that the vast majority of these raffles/lotteries don’t ever appear to meet the minimum amount of tickets needed to be sold. For example, take the Cheltenham house. Currently, 9200 odd tickets have been sold at £25 a pop = £230,000. Given the competition has been running since September and with a minimum 40,000 odd tickets needing to be sold it doesn’t look likely they will reach this threshold (especially as they have had TV coverage to boot). Depending on the volume of tickets sold the pot of loot can then be offered as a prize draw so £230,000 x 35% is a cool £80,500 (at current numbers) in admin. Not bad for a few months online marketing.
Surely a win, win for the owner. In the extreme event they sell all the tickets, they sell the house at the probably over valued rate and if they don’t sell all the tickets they make a tidy sum in admin charges. On balance, the punter has the raw end of the deal as a £25 stake at 9,000 to one for £150,000 isn’t great odds.
Issues are still being mooted as to whether these events constitute an illegal lottery and I have read of one woman being arrested. That said, the main thrust of the argument revolves around the level of skill required to answer the question so it wouldn’t be too difficult to make the question a little harder and fall within the guidelines.
So why not build a property competition portal and take a modest % for admin.
Roll up, roll up!
![Mar. [Explore]](http://static.flickr.com/4083/4950621171_7bcd1ab457_t.jpg "Mar. [Explore]")
I wouldn’t be surprised if more people try to sell their house this way given where things are going in the UK at the moment…
Here’s another article I came across that breaks down the cost of selling vs. running your own competition. Looking at their assumptions, 35% admin does seem like a lot!
http://win-house.co.uk/blog/running-your-own-competition/4-costs-of-running-a-win-a-house-competition-vs-selling-your-property.html
thanks for this article Martin, makes for interesting reading!
Engaging site,, will visit again=D
it appears the notorious win a property in Devon competition has finally been drawn! more details here…
http://blog.southernpropertyfinder.com/2009/05/21/winner-of-house-in-devon/
Hi can you give me move information on this and how to go set it up.
Hi Tracy I found 2 sites on this topic, one of them is more UK-centric by looks of things:
http://win-house.co.uk and http://winahouseraffles.com
Over in the US you usually have to do this with a charity. Seems from what I’ve read that you also have skill competitions in the UK but not sure how they are organized
good luck!
Liz
Excellent blog this blog.southernpropertyfinder.com well done and I was really pleased to stumble on : this it’s just what I needed to know.
It’s taken me literally 2 hours and 31 minutes of searching the web to find blog.southernpropertyfinder.com (lol)
But seriously I am really interested in Property Solicitors normally and so I shall be very pleased to become a regular visitor
Thanks
thanks for coming by Annie, email us any interesting snippets on ‘Period Property’ and we will blog it!
About this topic, I know everything. Hab was Volker Shtina and thought he was getting rid of neltkvidnoy property and called the site winyourhome The following year came the competition http://www.contestswinmoney.info and began to publish such projects. Also, a project winanewlife, only the organizer could not gather the required number of tickets and had to return the money. This is true, and gives credibility in the eyes of participants
Help
I want to sell my property by raffle I would love to hear from anyone who can help me and advise.
Is it lawful and what exactly do I need to do
All responses welcome
Thank you
Please advise as to how I too can sell my houses as raffle/lottery etc.
all help and adise will be greatly appreaciated
Yvonne & Tulsi, check out http://win-house.co.uk/services.html looks like they can give advice on setting up / promoting a house comp… good luck and let me know what your comp is I’m curious!