Can’t Sell Your House? Raffle It Off
Posted January 22, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Times are tough and the real estate market is just one of many formerly hot industries feeling the pinch. Many are putting their houses up for sale only to find they can’t get their price or people just don’t have the money to buy it.
That’s the scenario vendors in the GTA are discovering, and it’s not much different overseas. But some homeowners are not only making the best of it, they’re finding ways to actually benefit from it.
The latest instance took place in Austria, where Traude Daniel had a big house – and a big problem. She owned a huge villa in Carinthia in the southern part of the country and was hoping to get more than Cdn$1 million for the property.
It sprawled over 4,305 square metres of land and had been on the market for about half a year. But it was still too rich for even the most well-off blue blood.
So she decided to take a different path, one that an increasing number of frustrated sellers have been adopting. She sold raffle tickets on the web instead and staged a giveaway. A chance to own the magnificent abode cost just over $160 in Canadian funds and gave everyone a shot at the prize.
She wound up selling 9,999 tickets for the contest, a complete sell out, and raised more than Cdn$1.6 million in the process – far more than her original asking price.
Entrants ponied up their bucks from around the world, but in the end, the lucky winner was an Austrian man named Water Egger, whose ticket was drawn in the raffle on Tuesday.
Several others have watched her success and now people who are having trouble selling their homes are also taking them off the market and putting them up in a kind of winner-take-all lottery.
But there are risks involved to this new way of getting rid of property. If not enough people buy tickets, you’ll be legally forced to award the prize anyway. And that could cost you a fortune if sales don’t go well.
Some countries prohibit holding personal raffles at all and others have tight laws about who can issue tickets for such an event.
Which may explain why you might not see many trying the same tactic in Ontario. Only local charities, religious groups or other specified organizations are allowed to hold the draws of chance here. ( See the Alcohol and Gaming Commission rules.)
So if you’re having trouble selling your own little mansion in this province, you may just have to do it the old fashioned way and hope for your price.
Because in these tough times, the formerly sizzling real estate market has turned into a very different game of chance – and many feel they’re losing.
