I remember an early one of these, some bloke had a decent size house and fishing facilities/small holiday chalets in the back garden, worth approx £1 million so he raffled it, someone won.
Since then there have been loads of the things and in plenty of cases they're not necessarily run very well and no one wins the grand prize anyway, instead, a cash alternative is offered because the target isn't hit and the organiser pockets a 25% admin fee or something along those lines...
Omaze seem to be offering something different in that they both guarantee a prize and they promote their house draws along with a charity, the charity (usually a major one) promotes it on their social media pages and apparently gets 80% of the "net" proceeds... They've also solved the issue of having to allow for free entries, purchasing options involve multiple tickets whereas "free" entries involve a single entry and the cost of a stamp and post card make the free entry (on a per-entry basis) more expensive than simply buying your entries.
On one hand this seems like a much better prospect for people who might want to enter these house draw things, there actually is a guaranteed prize. Does make me wonder though, are they really just taking 20%?
Obvs they probably deduct the costs of administering the competition, and of course the cost of acquiring the house and the intermediary prizes (they give away flashy cars intermittently in draws for earlier ticket purchases) but do they get another source of revenue here?
The houses seem to be slightly ambitious in their valuation for example - the Fulham house they held a draw for a few months ago had a claimed valuation for £3 million but is currently on the market for £2.85 and might well get sold for less than that. The Devon house reportedly had a flooding issue...
I wonder if they get some sort of fee from the owner of the house? Are these houses that didn't sell initially on the open market? Do they actually buy the house themselves or do they do a deal with the owner.
I mean ostensibly you could go to some owner/developer of a £2-£3 million pound home that hasn't sold and do a deal where you'll either guarantee a price for them or give them a bracketed price (based on ticket sales) and take a commission out of their end too... then set that as part of your "costs" from which you then give the charity 80%?
I'm not knocking it per see, it seems like a neat competition, but I'd be interested if anyone knows how it works from that end?
Since then there have been loads of the things and in plenty of cases they're not necessarily run very well and no one wins the grand prize anyway, instead, a cash alternative is offered because the target isn't hit and the organiser pockets a 25% admin fee or something along those lines...
Omaze seem to be offering something different in that they both guarantee a prize and they promote their house draws along with a charity, the charity (usually a major one) promotes it on their social media pages and apparently gets 80% of the "net" proceeds... They've also solved the issue of having to allow for free entries, purchasing options involve multiple tickets whereas "free" entries involve a single entry and the cost of a stamp and post card make the free entry (on a per-entry basis) more expensive than simply buying your entries.
On one hand this seems like a much better prospect for people who might want to enter these house draw things, there actually is a guaranteed prize. Does make me wonder though, are they really just taking 20%?
Obvs they probably deduct the costs of administering the competition, and of course the cost of acquiring the house and the intermediary prizes (they give away flashy cars intermittently in draws for earlier ticket purchases) but do they get another source of revenue here?
The houses seem to be slightly ambitious in their valuation for example - the Fulham house they held a draw for a few months ago had a claimed valuation for £3 million but is currently on the market for £2.85 and might well get sold for less than that. The Devon house reportedly had a flooding issue...
I wonder if they get some sort of fee from the owner of the house? Are these houses that didn't sell initially on the open market? Do they actually buy the house themselves or do they do a deal with the owner.
I mean ostensibly you could go to some owner/developer of a £2-£3 million pound home that hasn't sold and do a deal where you'll either guarantee a price for them or give them a bracketed price (based on ticket sales) and take a commission out of their end too... then set that as part of your "costs" from which you then give the charity 80%?
I'm not knocking it per see, it seems like a neat competition, but I'd be interested if anyone knows how it works from that end?
