Own This House for $50

Having trouble selling your home? Try this marketing idea– sell raffle tickets. That’s right.

This 3 level, 6,000 square foot, 6 bedroom, 4.5 baths custom home on 2 acres of land located in Edgewater, MD is being raffled for a $50 ticket. The goal is to sell 31,500 tickets, raise $1.575 million and pick a winner. (Hmm… there may be more than 1 winner if the zestimate is right)

See house details on Zillow.com:

The house zestimate is $624,500.

The lucky winner gets the house free of mortgages and liens. Plus, they pay no closing costs. Gee, and I thought the Sellsius giveaway was something.

Drawing will be December 31, 2008.

Get your ticket here. Read the rules, which include:

Sponsor reserves the right to cancel the raffle if less than 31,500 tickets are sold. Sponsor further reserves the right to extend the entry period until the requisite number of tickets are sold, up to a maximum of 120 additional days. If the raffle is canceled for any reason, 99% of the ticket price will be refunded to each paid entrant.

All costs, taxes, fees and expenses associated with a prize or the acceptance and use of any element of a prize not specifically addressed herein are the sole responsibility of the respective winners…. Any income taxes arising from winning any Prize shall be the responsibility of the Prize winner. [These taxes can amount to a chunk of change-- consult an MD accountant or tax attorney]

News Source. Website.

Oh yeah, the second prize winner gets $10,000.

yattermatters

So you sell 31,499 tickets. Oops didn't make the 31,500. At 1% that's $15,750 +- in my jeans. I did what for that?

That's the minimum. Let's get wild and think 100,000 tickets are sold. Remember the caveat "raffle can be canceled for any reason". You do the math!

Am I missing something about the too good to be true part?

jfsellsius

Perhaps the organizers of the raffle will weigh in on the 1%. Maybe there
are some state laws on raffles requiring the state to get a piece of the
action. Good point.

EasyChange

Comcast did something very similar on Martha's Vineyard, MA and I believe that the auction was quite recent. I'd be interested to know who is sponsoring this. If it is a private owner, I'd be quite suspicious. If it is a big company, it seems less likely to be a scam.

http://www.possibledreamsauction.org/info.php

karl baker

is this legal?

jfsellsius

In Maryland, Yes. But the laws which vary from state to state.

According to Bruce Anderson, who has successfully raffled a home in MD:
In Maryland an appraisal must be completed at the time of the permit and if the drawing is more than 90 days after the permit is issued a second must be completed.

Brett

Brett Shaw from Cyberhomes:

@yattermatters: The $15,750 will not be just extra profit if the raffle is cancelled. If you look at the rules, it states that 99% of the $50 will be RETURNED to the entrants. This means that there will be 31,499 checks mailed back to the entrants (assuming there is one entry per person). At $.42 postage, this means that they will pay approximately $13,229.58 to send the money back. The only profit realized is the remaining 8 cents. So that would be ($.08)(31,499) = $2,519.92

This is still a profit, but take into account utilities, mortgage, etc. over the course of the raffle (plus an additional 120 days if needed) and you are going to come out pretty close to even. It seems like they've worked through the financial aspect of this pretty well.

Prismas Basalticos

Yeah I think this is something too good to be true.

-M from Mexico

Sellsius real estate marketing blog

Own This House for $50