A desperate vendor is raffling his property after it was listed with an agent at £845,000 in December but apparently attracted only one viewing.
According to Rightmove, the property has previously been listed at £995,000.
The owner says it is now on the market with a price tag of £650,000. Some drop!
Raffle tickets are £2 each, with a closing date of August.
Owner Dunstan Low says Melling Manor, in Lancashire, will be repossessed if it fails to sell.
He says he has struggled to pay the mortgage after renovating the property, which is the wing of a large mansion, and has decided to take the sale of the home into his own hands after sounding out estate agents and quick-sale companies.
The house – essentially a semi – is described as having six bedrooms, a ballroom, drawing room, cinema room and sweeping gardens.
Low bought the property, a former hotel, for £435,000 in 2011, believing it needed no more than a lick of paint.
He claims to have received over 133,000 entries in the raffle, with the target to sell 500,000 tickets via the website winacountryhouse.com
We have done a number of similar types of stories from time to time – but over the years, have never managed to report on a single successful sale of a property by raffle.
Does anyone know any different? Have there been any successful sales?
No idea of successful raffles. Even this one says that if the property is sold prior then the raffle money will be the prize “with costs deducted”. So it’s publicity for the sale, potential upside on the asking if raffle pot > asking or they can sell at some other price and take costs from the raffle. Tidy. If it does work, expect to see a lot more of these with the people behind them getting fatter each time.
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I’ve posted some comments on this before. There are so many compliance and legal issues to be met in accordance with statutory UK Gambling Commission laws and it’s unclear if these have been met with this “so called raffle”, which is being run for commercial gain. It looks more like a competition based on a game of chance. Either way the Gambling Commission laws still apply.
For the avoidance of doubt, I would suggest if the legal/compliance issues have been met, “The Promoter” makes a clear declaration of these on the competition website.
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awful photos. property doesnt look very attractive at all. Not sure I would want it at all – not even the raffle price.
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I hope this owner has all his ducks in a row regarding laws /rules as apply to commercial raffles in accordance with The UK Gambling Commission and or The Local Authority.
There are strict rules with default penalities which is one of the barriers to property raffles being more common!!
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Got to be worth a pop for a tenner 😉
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Absolutely, but only if compliance issues are in place. Let’s hope so.
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Most of these raffles fail because the legal barriers to get round gambling laws mean its not worth it for a one off.
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There’s even a “Sell Your House” section – offering to do the same for others.
Dream on, Rip van Winkle!
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Now they really do need to get in line with licences etc if they have not done so already.
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It technically isn’t a raffle because you have to answer a (very simple) question correctly. That’s how they’re getting around the rules.
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If it was this easy, there would be many more!! The term “raffle” is widely used and abused. Yes you are correct it’s not a raffle, but it is a game of chance which is run for commercial gain and is governed by UK Gambling Commission Rules.. My comment about ducks in a row, still applies.
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Love it. On the market with housesimple. Slashed the price by 300k. True cost of using an onliner? Some people will do anything to avoid paying a professional a fair fee to do a decent job.
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