Raffling a house - desperate measures when you can't sell

[Frank Hovis]

Here we go with one of the indicators of a failing market.  Though this one is particularly interesting because it gives more information than usual.

Westcountry seaside home could be yours for less than the price of a coffee

The house in Somerset.  Claimed value £350k which doesn't seem unreasonable at present.

 

It's when however you come to the numbers that it becomes interesting.

A Somerset couple are raffling off their four bedroom house for less than a price of a coffee. Leoni Fay-Webb and husband Declan have made the decision to up and move into a larger property for their seven children, and have now decided to give their family home, which sits in Garsdale Road in Worle, away to one lucky ticket holder for just £3.

“But with such a big family, we need more space.” The couple needs to sell between 300,000 and 500,000 tickets to make the raffle financially viable. The house has been valued at around £350,000.

So far they have sold 4,000 tickets but are confident they will hit their target by the time the raffle is drawn on October 21. Leoni said the couple chose to raffle their house to give people a chance to get onto the property ladder.

 

Right, so we have a house valued at £350k.  Add maybe £5k for admin costs, being generous, and that's 118k tickets that they need to sell to cover the house value.

They have sold 4k so that's £12k thus far.

Their "financially viable" sales level is an astounding £0.9m to £1.5m of sales for a £350k house.  I must rewrite the definition of "viable" in my dictionary.

 

Looking at the competition page, linked at the foot of the article, that 300k sales / £0.9m is the minimum number of sales for the house to go into the draw.

If not then the cash prize is 75% of ticket sales.

At the current level of 4k sales that's £3k cash going into their pockets.

If it just misses the target at 299,999 sales then they will pocket a staggering £225k.

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/westcountry-seaside-home-could-yours-7599147

 

If anyone is demented enough to wish to enter the details are at the link.

 

Tbh I quite fancy £225k for doing sod all.  I might raffle my house.

 

 

[belfastchild]

Always look for the  NPN route. Its postal for this, too late now to post but if you had wanted to get rid of some old first class stamps send in a boatload of postcards with everyone you knows address on them ;-)

[Frank Hovis]

5 minutes ago, belfastchild said:

Always look for the  NPN route. Its postal for this, too late now to post but if you had wanted to get rid of some old first class stamps send in a boatload of postcards with everyone you knows address on them ;-)

 

Going back I would have done this as I used to enter competitions in the local paper with a reasonable success rate but with stamps now at 95p / 68p it feels like throwing money away when I can buy a lottery ticket for £2 on a must go.

The closing date is 21 October so it's not too late unless there is a condition for postal entries which I haven't read.  I didn't read it all.

[belfastchild]

6 minutes ago, Frank Hovis said:

 

Going back I would have done this as I used to enter competitions in the local paper with a reasonable success rate but with stamps now at 95p / 68p it feels like throwing money away when I can buy a lottery ticket for £2 on a must go.

The closing date is 21 October so it's not too late unless there is a condition for postal entries which I haven't read.  I didn't read it all.

ah ok, thought it was 21st September - I didnt read it properly ;-)

Ive still about 80 first class stamps bought around the 29p mark and hundreds of postcards left over from comping days. Might stick one or two in ;-)

[Gloommonger]

1 hour ago, belfastchild said:

ah ok, thought it was 21st September - I didnt read it properly ;-)

Ive still about 80 first class stamps bought around the 29p mark and hundreds of postcards left over from comping days. Might stick one or two in ;-)

I doubt they even open the postal entries!

[Axeman123]

20 minutes ago, Gloommonger said:

I doubt they even open the postal entries!

A big corporation like Kellogs or Vauxhall etc wouldn't risk not doing everything above board regarding postcard entries, whereas I would put money on it that in a competition run by amateurs like this one the eventual winner will just be their mate.

[belfastchild]

13 minutes ago, Axeman123 said:

A big corporation like Kellogs or Vauxhall etc wouldn't risk not doing everything above board regarding postcard entries, whereas I would put money on it that in a competition run by amateurs like this one the eventual winner will just be their mate.

3rd party doing the draw? They will be getting screwed on fees as well.

[spygirl]

The raffle is the least interesting thing-

A couple with seven children are raffling off their Weston-super-Mare house for less than the price of a coffee - so they can move to a larger property. Leoni Fay-Webb and husband Declan are raffling off their four bedroom property in Garsdale Road in Worle for £3 a ticket in a bid to move to a place with more room for their huge brood.

Leoni, 35, purchased the converted bungalow in August 2019 with her four children after her divorce with a plan to make it her family’s forever home. But that plan changed after she met her now husband, schoolteacher Declan who moved down from Wigan at the start of the pandemic in March 2020 so they could be together.

The pair married that August with Declan’s three children moving to join Leoni and her four children. The couple have a five year old, two eight year olds, two 10 year-olds, an 11 year-old and a 12 year-old

So.... 33yo, 4 kids, meets Wigan bloke with 3, marries the next year, gets custody of his 3 kids.

When I bought the house I thought I’d be here forever and it was a great family home,” said Leoni, a stay at home mum. But then I met Declan and now we have seven children between us

20/11/2019	£215,000	35 Garsdale Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS22 8PU Details...
28/10/2019	£263,000	24 Garsdale Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS22 8PT Details...
11/10/2019	£280,000	30 Garsdale Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS22 8PT Details...
10/09/2019	£259,995	22 Garsdale Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS22 8PT Details...
01/07/2019	£190,000	15 Garsdale Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS22 8PT Details...
16/05/2019	£370,000	5 Garsdale Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS22 8PT Details...
26/02/2019	£270,000	37 Garsdale Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS22 8PU Details...

[One percent]

4 hours ago, Frank Hovis said:

Here we go with one of the indicators of a failing market.  Though this one is particularly interesting because it gives more information than usual.

Westcountry seaside home could be yours for less than the price of a coffee

The house in Somerset.  Claimed value £350k which doesn't seem unreasonable at present.

 

It's when however you come to the numbers that it becomes interesting.

A Somerset couple are raffling off their four bedroom house for less than a price of a coffee. Leoni Fay-Webb and husband Declan have made the decision to up and move into a larger property for their seven children, and have now decided to give their family home, which sits in Garsdale Road in Worle, away to one lucky ticket holder for just £3.

“But with such a big family, we need more space.” The couple needs to sell between 300,000 and 500,000 tickets to make the raffle financially viable. The house has been valued at around £350,000.

So far they have sold 4,000 tickets but are confident they will hit their target by the time the raffle is drawn on October 21. Leoni said the couple chose to raffle their house to give people a chance to get onto the property ladder.

 

Right, so we have a house valued at £350k.  Add maybe £5k for admin costs, being generous, and that's 118k tickets that they need to sell to cover the house value.

They have sold 4k so that's £12k thus far.

Their "financially viable" sales level is an astounding £0.9m to £1.5m of sales for a £350k house.  I must rewrite the definition of "viable" in my dictionary.

 

Looking at the competition page, linked at the foot of the article, that 300k sales / £0.9m is the minimum number of sales for the house to go into the draw.

If not then the cash prize is 75% of ticket sales.

At the current level of 4k sales that's £3k cash going into their pockets.

If it just misses the target at 299,999 sales then they will pocket a staggering £225k.

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/westcountry-seaside-home-could-yours-7599147

 

If anyone is demented enough to wish to enter the details are at the link.

 

Tbh I quite fancy £225k for doing sod all.  I might raffle my house.

 

 

I thought that this had been outlawed.  Must be dreaming it.  

[Chewing Grass]

@spygirl how the fuck would you convert that to house 7 kids, Weston must be the Southern equivalent of Blackpool, Rhyl or Scarborough in Benefits Britain.

 

[spygirl]

1 minute ago, Chewing Grass said:

@spygirl how the fuck would you convert that to house 7 kids, Weston must be the Southern equivalent of Blackpool, Rhyl or Scarborough in Benefits Britain.

 

Two caravans on the drive. Sorted .....

[Axeman123]

19 minutes ago, Chewing Grass said:

how the fuck would you convert that to house 7 kids

Male children's dorm, Female children's dorm, parents in master.

Pakis would get over a dozen in that, probably with grand-parents and multiple breeding age married couples sharing the master. A self-contained hamlet in effect.

[Happy Renting]

5 hours ago, Frank Hovis said:

Here we go with one of the indicators of a failing market.  Though this one is particularly interesting because it gives more information than usual.

Westcountry seaside home could be yours for less than the price of a coffee

The house in Somerset.  Claimed value £350k which doesn't seem unreasonable at present.

 

It's when however you come to the numbers that it becomes interesting.

A Somerset couple are raffling off their four bedroom house for less than a price of a coffee. Leoni Fay-Webb and husband Declan have made the decision to up and move into a larger property for their seven children, and have now decided to give their family home, which sits in Garsdale Road in Worle, away to one lucky ticket holder for just £3.

“But with such a big family, we need more space.” The couple needs to sell between 300,000 and 500,000 tickets to make the raffle financially viable. The house has been valued at around £350,000.

So far they have sold 4,000 tickets but are confident they will hit their target by the time the raffle is drawn on October 21. Leoni said the couple chose to raffle their house to give people a chance to get onto the property ladder.

 

Right, so we have a house valued at £350k.  Add maybe £5k for admin costs, being generous, and that's 118k tickets that they need to sell to cover the house value.

They have sold 4k so that's £12k thus far.

Their "financially viable" sales level is an astounding £0.9m to £1.5m of sales for a £350k house.  I must rewrite the definition of "viable" in my dictionary.

 

Looking at the competition page, linked at the foot of the article, that 300k sales / £0.9m is the minimum number of sales for the house to go into the draw.

If not then the cash prize is 75% of ticket sales.

At the current level of 4k sales that's £3k cash going into their pockets.

If it just misses the target at 299,999 sales then they will pocket a staggering £225k.

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/westcountry-seaside-home-could-yours-7599147

 

If anyone is demented enough to wish to enter the details are at the link.

 

Tbh I quite fancy £225k for doing sod all.  I might raffle my house.

 

 

I don't have a house to raffle.

I think I'll raffle someone else's house, without telling them. No need for them to know.

[haroldshand]

50 minutes ago, Chewing Grass said:

@spygirl how the fuck would you convert that to house 7 kids, Weston must be the Southern equivalent of Blackpool, Rhyl or Scarborough in Benefits Britain.

 

I remember an article in the Times only a few years ago comparing a terrace shoebox  house in Colliers Wood near to where I lived in Wimbledon which used to be a really rough area and what you could buy around the world with the same money of less.

I cannot remember all the houses but there was this one country house in Maine US with beautiful gardens in a stunning area with several bedrooms which also had some kind of late 18th century history of some US president staying there plus one other senator years later and it was valued less than that shithole in the UK..

One day we will just be jolted awake and think what the fuck were we thinking

[Innkeeper]

Seaside home my arse - Worle is basically several massive newish housing estates about five miles from the coast next to the M5 

[Joncrete Cungle]

5 hours ago, haroldshand said:

I remember an article in the Times only a few years ago comparing a terrace shoebox  house in Colliers Wood near to where I lived in Wimbledon which used to be a really rough area and what you could buy around the world with the same money of less.

I cannot remember all the houses but there was this one country house in Maine US with beautiful gardens in a stunning area with several bedrooms which also had some kind of late 18th century history of some US president staying there plus one other senator years later and it was valued less than that shithole in the UK..

One day we will just be jolted awake and think what the fuck were we thinking

I occasionally look at houses with acres of land, outbuildings, woodland and a pond / lake in Scandinavia, France, Spain, Portugal and parts of the USA for less than I paid for this house in the UK and wonder why the heck am I still in Blighty...

[Ash4781b]

“The couple have currently sold 4000 raffle tickets - although need to reach at least 300,000”

 

Blimey already sold 4k tickets which is a lot. Now need to get to 300k and imo the likely probability of getting there is 0. So seems a tad pointless all this. the ticket volumes required are always too high because of the maths . But I guess the plan is the free publicity.

[Boon]

This is nothing new - seem to recall a few in the past although I think very few work because either they fall foul of the law (not asking a question to make it 'skill'/offering a free method) and of course the more onerous thing of having to shift a shitload of tickets without spending any money in advertising.

I think the only ones that work are Omaze but they must spend an absolute bomb on advertising and also have a prize that is desirable. On the other hand this house is likely to appeal to barely anyone.

I dunno if there is anything such as negative publicity because it is easy to work out from the ticket sales/'prize' value that the owners are greedy fucks and I assume they haven't been able to get the price they want from the normal market.

[Frank Hovis]

6 minutes ago, Boon said:

This is nothing new - seem to recall a few in the past although I think very few work because either they fall foul of the law (not asking a question to make it 'skill'/offering a free method) and of course the more onerous thing of having to shift a shitload of tickets without spending any money in advertising.

I think the only ones that work are Omaze but they must spend an absolute bomb on advertising and also have a prize that is desirable. On the other hand this house is likely to appeal to barely anyone.

I dunno if there is anything such as negative publicity because it is easy to work out from the ticket sales/'prize' value that the owners are greedy fucks and I assume they haven't been able to get the price they want from the normal market.

 

There is also that Omaze gives a big chunk of their profits on each house to charity and have a set time deadline on each house at which point the raffle is drawn rather than having a set requirement for ticket sales so that potentially they could be making a loss.  IIRC they still make the charity donation even if they do make a loss.

I have even considered buying an Omaze ticket and may do so.

These private raffles are however for mugs only and greedily optimistic sellers who think that they might be able to shift their unsellable £350k bungalow for £0.9m; and if they don't they still pocket 75p for every ticket sold.

 

 

Here are half a dozen unsellable houses in Cornwall from a story today; coming to a raffle or auction near you some day soon.

This one for £260k in Bodmin's depressed high street is probably the most likely rafflee.

 

 

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/cornish-houses-sale-havent-budged-7592771

[King Penda]

16 hours ago, haroldshand said:

I remember an article in the Times only a few years ago comparing a terrace shoebox  house in Colliers Wood near to where I lived in Wimbledon which used to be a really rough area and what you could buy around the world with the same money of less.

I cannot remember all the houses but there was this one country house in Maine US with beautiful gardens in a stunning area with several bedrooms which also had some kind of late 18th century history of some US president staying there plus one other senator years later and it was valued less than that shithole in the UK..

One day we will just be jolted awake and think what the fuck were we thinking

America has the advantage of being very large

[Frank Hovis]

On 19/09/2022 at 09:30, King Penda said:

America has the advantage of being very large

 

Only proportionately to its population though.  China is very large but the inhabitable areas are packed out.

Once the globalists have managed to cram in 100 million into the UK then they will start on the US saying that as they are fifty times bigger then they should allow in sufficient uneducated violent third world wasters to raise its populatiion to 5 billion.

The rationale for this will be that they are climate change refugees, climate change is the fault of the US therefore "morally" they must let everyone in.

The only bright light on the horizon for me is the energy crisis which betrays an underlying global energy shotage meaning that such large populations become utterly unsustainable as the amount of energy and food available per person starts to fall off a cliff.

And when this means wholescale reversion to the agrarian lifestyle worldwide then rural Sudan is going to look far more attractive to Abdul than cold damp rural Shropshire.

[spunko]

On 19/09/2022 at 09:14, Frank Hovis said:

 

There is also that Omaze gives a big chunk of their profits on each house to charity and have a set time deadline on each house at which point the raffle is drawn rather than having a set requirement for ticket sales so that potentially they could be making a loss.  IIRC they still make the charity donation even if they do make a loss.

I have even considered buying an Omaze ticket and may do so.

These private raffles are however for mugs only and greedily optimistic sellers who think that they might be able to shift their unsellable £350k bungalow for £0.9m; and if they don't they still pocket 75p for every ticket sold.

 

 

Here are half a dozen unsellable houses in Cornwall from a story today; coming to a raffle or auction near you some day soon.

This one for £260k in Bodmin's depressed high street is probably the most likely rafflee.

 

 

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/cornish-houses-sale-havent-budged-7592771

Have you run the figures on this? I seem to remember that Omaze gave away a tiny percentage not a huge one, but might be wrong

 

[Frank Hovis]

30 minutes ago, spunko said:

Have you run the figures on this? I seem to remember that Omaze gave away a tiny percentage not a huge one, but might be wrong

 

 

I would do before I bought a ticket, I'm not sure.

[Ash4781b]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11318751/amp/Couple-reveal-auctioning-four-bedroom-bungalow-3-ticket.html
 

“The main problem with mortgages is that affordability checks suggest that no one with seven kids could afford any reasonable mortgage.

'But they fail to take into account we are already paying one and could afford more.”

 

Raffle is still on. How many tickets did they need to sell at £3 a ticket? Seems like a daft waste of time.