True Gotham

I'm re-posting this story yet again because I think it's brilliant and it's a success...so far.   Check out the comments section below though as more is revealed about the history of this home.

From WBALTV.com in my home town of Baltimore comes this incredibly creative and ingenious marketing strategy for selling your home in a down market.

HAGERSTOWN, Md. -- Frustrated by a nationwide housing slump, a western Maryland couple is selling raffle tickets for their $390,000 house and hoping they'll sell enough $100 tickets to get the farmhouse off their hands. (3900 tickets and they get their price!)

Dennis Kelly and Karen Crawford put the four-bedroom house for sale for $425,000 a year and a half ago. But they say the housing slowdown means they haven't had any takers. The house is now valued at $390,000.

The real beauty in what Mr. Kelly and Ms. Crawford are doing is that all of the proceeds above and beyond the $390,000 will go to benefit the San Mar Children's Home.  This seems like a win, win, win (yes three wins) to me.  At $100 per raffle ticket, it's highly likely that more than 3900 tickets will be sold.  The sellers get their price, San Mar will likely make a considerable amount of money, and one lucky winner will get a $390,000 house for $100!  With additional donations from local businesses the raffle offers a total of five prizes.

The four-bedroom house will go to the grand-prize winner. Second prize is a 2008 Toyota Camry, third prize is a Persian rug, the fourth is furniture and the fifth prize is $1,000 cash -- all offered to raffle organizers by a local car dealership and furniture store.

The raffle has been approved by Maryland gaming authorities.  Assuming 5000 raffle tickets are sold, the odds are not bad and knowing that the excess $110,000 goes to a worthwhile charity makes the $100 ticket price that much more palatable.

In Manhattan, we would only have to sell about 15,000 raffle tickets at $100 a pop to sell the average priced apartment.  So will 2008 be the year of the housing raffle?  It seems that in some markets across the country, we are going to see some very creative marketing strategies.  Here on the home front, creativity hasn't yet become a necessity.

Here's the complete listing for the house.

There is still time to buy a ticket.  CLICK HERE to purchase online with a credit card or download a pdf and pay by check.

UPDATE:  They have sold well over the minumim of 5000 raffle tickets making this a win-win for the homeowners and SanMar.  The raffle is being held tomorrow, Thursday March 13!  I will post winners on Friday.

For tips and advice on conducting your own house raffle, check out How To Raffle Your House.

Please send me pictures of the house and can you tell me when the drawing is?

I added links Kristi for listing and ticket purchase...good luck.

I've actually purchased a ticket. I agree it's for a great cause. However, there are certain "Buyer Beware" items that should be noted - specifically the fact that the winner could be liable for as much as $150,000 in taxes for the first year!

There used to be a "counter" on the site that told you how many tickets had been sold. This has been removed (I think tickets were selling a little slowly at first).

Susan

150k in taxes is a steal for this house. I think the winner, if out of state, should sell the house at auction or keep as an investment property.

The counter is back up now because sales are moving more swiftly.

We bought a ticket too. It would help us get out of Colorado and back East. We could Home Equity the tax, lower the price of the house we are trying to sell for 2 years and GET out of Colorado! The biggest prize of all. We would probably live in the house. It is lovely.

I haven't bought a ticket but since I am the CEO of the charity that benefits it might be deemed a conflict! Thanks to everyone who has supported the project. We are at just under 4700 right now (3.7.08). It looks like a go! Actually, I took the counter down originally due to us getting so backlogged with on line tickets, mail ins and walk ins that the numbers posted were not correct. We needed to devise a method of posting true numbers. Truthfully, we were so overwhelmed with response we didn't know the true numbers. That has been corrected. Stay tuned. Next week will tell...

Great Auction. Great Idea. Susan (above): Could you explain your comment about owing possibly $150,000 in taxes the first year?

Also, updates on the House. I read in the local newspaper of the area the house is in that there was a flurry of paperwork and application and inspection re-dos going on before the auction takes place. Since the appraisal was done awhile back, it is being re-appraised, so that the charity which the house was donated to will only pay the donors any changed appraisal (possibly down.) Deed still has to be transfered to Charity, I understand.

And a little note: In reading through the "paperwork" link on the raffle site, I see that the inspection has "yes" checked for basement wetness or moisture. All other stuff looks good.

Here is the link from Coldwell Banker Realty in PDF form of the papers on the raffled house:
http://www.cbmove.com/getPDF.ashx?FileId=6093

Here is a link to an article dealing with the questioned appraisal of the house:
http://www.herald-mail.com/?story_id=186907&cmd=displaystory

What one gets is a sense of the difficulty in selling this house, attributed by the owners to the falling market.

But while the raffle mentions the wonderful 3.2 acreage plus its desireable proximity to 1,500 acres, it doesn't mention that these 1,500 acres are owned by the Western Maryland Hunt Club. PLUS, in the paperwork for the house, it is mentioned there is an easement or right-of-way/right away (as SP ?) to the hunt club "to left of house".

So.. nothing against hunting, but does this mean the owners of the property are subject to a steady barrage of gunshots nextdoor not to mention a constant in and out of vehicles to and from this club?

Could a quote from the donating owners in the article linked above provide a clue as to why this property has had such diffculty selling even when constantly dropping its price and opening to offers even while comparable properties in the area have sold?:

"Built in 1929, the house was sold as a fixer-upper in 2005 for $185,000 to a company that remodeled it and sold it to Karen Crawford and her husband, Dennis Kelly, for $375,000 in April 2006.

Wanting to retire, the couple realized too late that the two-story house *wasn't for them*.

So the very next month, they put it back on the market for $384,900, according to Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc., which tracks real estate deals."

You drop $375,000 on a house and a Month Later you decide it isn't for you? OK, but WHY?

I thought this was worth posting and considering.

Ken (above): Here is the link to the article about the potential tax liability on the house. However, there are lots of ways to ease that pain, as Doug has mentioned above.

http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=184401&format=print

I'm still hoping I win!

Thanks Susan, I just read the article you linked to. Very comprehensive.

I full disclosure, I have bought a ticket, too and then- in my usual curious and research-oriented state- I went trolling for info and satellite views of this property.

I just found it interesting that even with the owners explanation of market woes as the reason for not being able to sell her house for over a year, other similar properties in her area Had sold. And she couldn't sell after repeatedly lowering the price below what she paid.

I felt several answers to this could be offered up:

a) She paid too much in the first place. (Remember, as recently as 2005 $185K was paid for it, then it was renovated and resold to her for $375K. That's a 190K renovation in a very desolate area.

Too much maybe for a house of this type/size?

If after reno, of course, the $375K was an appropriate assessment of increased value, and the reno was quality and kept the historic feel of the place relatively intact, then what other factors may have figured into this particular property not selling?

b) The dropping market. BUT, other similarly valued properties in her area Were selling.

c) Something undisclosed or unexpected. Without having visited the property, I can only wonder if being adjacent to a Hunt Club plus having a right of way on your property that leads there could be quite the uunexpected break in the idea of solitude that one is expecting when buying and moving into a property and location such as this.

Other than the reported wetness in the basement, I can come up with no other idea.

I am interested in selling my home as well how can we arrange this????

Maria,

Where is your home located? Let's go from there and see if we can't get you in touch with the appropriate people.

I think this is a fantastic idea and sounds very tempting. I would also like information on how to do something like this. I live in Long Island, NY, Suffolk county.
Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated.

Maria and Interest Party 2,

I'm getting ready to post a blog entry today about another person doing the exact same thing. It should be up in 30 minutes or so.

I would like some information on this as well. I live in south Texas and have a home I need to sell. Please send me in the right direction.

This was a great home and a fabulous opportunity to own for just $100. I am also holding a raffle for a beautiful townhome in Richmond, VA. It is valued at over $200,000 and tickets are $20. Raffle ends August 31, 2008. Visit www.myspace.com/houseraffle20

I would be interested since I live in Md what resources and contacts or procedure to follow this couple has used and am thinking this over for my home on an island on the shore with a specific amount going to a charity event sponsored by the big give.
wgayander@aol.com

interested in holding raffle for my house ? how do i get info on this?

Quite a bit of interest. I think people should reach out to SanMar for guidance. This seems to be gaining popularity!

I am also interested in doing this. what if you don't get enough raffle tickets? how could you recover from that?

Bobbi,

In the above instance, the owners had arranged to return all monies if they didn't reach the goal of 5000. They had to get approval from the Maryland Gaming Authority. This is a fail safe solution in any way. It's a risk. But as witnessed above, if you do your homework and maybe find a local agent willing to work for charity as these people did, you just may be able to get out from under that mortgage.

i live in washington state, i'd like some info on this to.

I see what you guys are doing and was woundering about doing this too. If you could help me out with this it would be a blessing.

I think its a shame that everything in this country is taxed. The government has to always have its hands in the pot. Why they have to benefit from you winning a house is appalling.