Couple Sell House in Online Raffle
August 8, 2008
Have you ever dreamed of owning a £1 million property in Devon? Well Brian Wilshaw aged 64 and his wife Wendy are giving people the chance to do just that by offering up their own house in a huge online raffle. Basically to be in with a chance of winning this house which has an amazing 5 bedrooms with four two-bedroom holiday lodges, 9.5 acres of woodland and a two-acre fishing lake you just need to enter a simple question on the website. You then pay a £25 entry fee (kind of like buying your tickets) and you are in with a chance of winning the lot! Keep reading for the full story …
When there have been 46,000 entries a winner will be chosen and the house will be theirs! I must admit, it sounds almost too good to be true at first glance doesn’t it, but I’ve had a look around their website and they say the following:
“We are Brian and Wendy Wilshaw, we have owned this fabulous place for about 13 years and live here with our son. We took great pleasure in running Oldborough Fishing Retreat as a holiday complex for about 10 years, but now it’s time for us to retire and downsize to a village nearby.
We have decided to sell our house by competition firstly because we love the thought of someone have the life changing opportunity of winning this unique house and lake, and secondly it gets us out of the hassle of the property market with broken chains and viewings etc. So many of our guests and friends have said, “when I win the lottery I’m coming back for this place! – so, we thought this would be a fun way to make that happen for someone.”
There’s no denying that this property is absolutely stunning, with its rural setting and beautiful surroundings it would make a dream home for one lucky family!
http://www.winadevonpropertywithfishing.co.uk/index.php
So, would you pay £25 of your own cash to enter this, or do you think it’s too much of a gamble. Let us know in the reply box below!
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House Raffles are a great idea and have been run successfully for many years in the States. It’s only fairly recently that they have caught the UK’s imagination. Winning the Devon property is all well & good but it’s going to be hard work for the winner. How about winning a modest, economical family home on the edge of the Lake District? Visit http://www.houserafflecumbria.co.uk for more details.
i’ve entered a few of these house competitions now and i think there a great idea. i reckon there worth the money and i know the odds are against me winning but it’s a bit of fun.
the devon one has been on hold for a while but i ckecked the website today and it looks as if it will be drawn any time.
have a look at these two that are offrering really nice places, i’ve entered both of them. http://www.winadreamhomeinthesun.com
http://www.winacabin.co.uk
Lot of these house raffles are illegal – in the UK you need to run a prize competition, lotteries can only be run by lotteries if you’re making a profit otherwise…
See this article, apparently plenty (including the wilshaws) had to postpone or cancel their house raffle recently:
http://win-house.co.uk/blog/competition-updates/15-further-property-competitions-cancelled-following-the-devon-house-competition-setback.html
apparently problems with the gambling commission and paypal – but I’m sure some people have resolved this since
Re the comment above – I saw at http://www.winadreamhome.com that the Wilshaws competition is now going to award the house prize. And… on the same site, I saw that the solicitors acting for win a dream home are gaming law experts and have certified this competition as completely legal.
Sandy,
I’ve come across quite a few people complaining they haven’t heard anything from the winacabin people, do you have any news? You mentioned you entered it back in February:
http://win-house.co.uk/property-competitions/closed/2009/197-win-a-cabin.html
I was wondering, why don’t more people just partner up with charities in the uk, is that legal? in the us they seem to do it a lot successfully:
http://winahouseraffles.com/blog/organizing-house-raffles/30-house-raffle-brings-charity-back-into-profit.html
I wish someone could clarify what can be done and if regulated people could do this properly – with a charity if need be