Win a house competitions - Omaze etc..

[dowie]

Hence the inflated price.

Inflated price doesn't really help them beyond perhaps matching the seller's asking price and being sufficient for them to take it off the market and hang on while Omaze run the competition etc..

Wonder if they actually make much, I had this idea for auction/competition selling houses about 15 years ago but never progressed it.

They make 20% of the net proceeds, the charity gets 80% of the net. so for example they're estimating the charity gets 500k for this one and they'll make 125k, but I'd guess that 125k is likely mostly profit.

For example, it is a third-party company that administers the draw/handles the entry, so the operational costs of the competition are deducted, the cost of the house, furnishing it, other prizes etc.. will obviously be deducted, the video/photography/advertising costs will all be deducted. Legal fees, stamp duty etc.. all presumably costs to be deducted prior to the split.

So possibly the £125k or whatever low 6 figure sum they make per competition might pay the salaries of a presumably very small number of Omaze staff doing whatever stuff is left which hasn't been outsourced, or possibly there is a way for them to deduct some other costs too and that £125k or whatever they make might be nearly pure profit.

 

[dowie]

I'd be very surprised if they're not counting wages as an outgoing and therefore excluding that too from the calculation for what the charity gets. I would expect what they call 'net proceeds' to be absolute profit after every possible outgoing has been removed.

Not sure they can easily do that, it's one thing to account for the expenses of contractors etc.. which are all attributed to a given promotion/prize draw event it's a bit different if you're expensing some contribution towards say some Omaze UK manager's salary and bonus which is on an annual basis and not tied to a specific prize draw. They could I guess bill some of the time their salaried staff spend on a given draw but it might be a bit dubious. Some of their other time might not be dedicated to a given draw or indeed spent on sourcing property/negotiating deals that later fall through.

I presume it's moot really as pretty much most things relating to any given draw itself have likely been outsourced, I mean they don't even run the draws themselves, it's an independent company that handles all the postal entries and conducts the draws, the media stuff and the presented will likely be external contractors, decorating the property is probs an independent interior designer, the advertising campaign is probs some agency (maybe the social media too), the legal stuff is probs an external law firm.

There likely isn't much left for any actual Omaze staff other than general strategy, sourcing and negotiating the next properties to award as prizes... so I suspect most of it basically is pure profit for them.

I wonder what liabilities and responsibilities the new owner will have for the other parts of the building? Here in Scotland you can force fellow owners to pay for necessary maintenance etc; I'm not sure that's the case in England.

Are you sure that's not re: flats/apartments?

This is a house and it's a freehold property, people who own terraced houses or semi-detached houses don't have any general liability for their neighbour's building either in England or Scotland AFAIK. (Save for stuff relating to party walls perhaps.)

If you own a terraced house in Glasgow and the bloke 2 doors down has an issue with his roof do you need to pay?

That it's on a private road though can be a source of expenses, all the houses on that road/estate will likely be liable for road maintenance etc.. at least. In some cases they might have a management org and jointly pay for gardeners etc..

 

[dowie]

I bought a ticket for the Cotswolds draw and the Devon one but I am slightly confused about a few things and I thought it might be worth mentioning them on here to see if anyone could help. Re the winner reveal process - for the Cotswolds draw, they said they'd reveal the winning entry code online and would then call or email the winner shortly after the code has been revealed. But they uploaded a video call where the winner didn't appear to know what he'd won until they revealed it during the video call?

I guess my point is, either the reveal is online or in a video call. I don't see how it can be both unless they're hoping that the winner hasn't already checked the code?

I'm not sure if they call the winner first before revealing the code? There are instances in the rules for example where they might disqualify the winner if you're not a UK resident if you've won a house with them already (unlikely) etc... So I presume the winner is contacted first then checks made to ensure they are a valid winner, valid entries etc.. and then the code is announced.

As for the filming of them announcing the prize to the winner, I'm not sure. That could well be scripted/planned:

"hey, you won the house, we're going to film a bit for the website, just act surprised"

or it could be hinted at;

"you've won a prize, might be the supercar, might be the house we need to film the big reveal once we've done some checks, are you a UK resident? Are you related to any Omaze employees or employees of the independent firm managing the draw?"

etc..

When they did the in-person reveal for one of the earlier draws (I think it was the first one, the Cheshire house) they went round to the winner's house then lead them around the corner to a mobile big screen which revealed they'd won the house. I guess covid then changed things and they had the video call reaction etc.. for the Cotswolds one.

 

[dowie]

Looks like a couple from the 1980s won the Devon house:

 

[dowie]

I put a tenner in.

I have written to my MP that it was a fix and I should have won the Devon one.

I put the odds into my ZX81 and everything, it was a sure thing.

LOL, you should join some of the people on facebook, some of them genuinely seem to be a bit bonkers and adamant that these competitions are some form of scam or the winners don't exist etc..

 

[dowie]

Glad I didnt win it - so close to all those other houses

Different house, that's the Ascot house and it's still up for grabs along with the Wimbledon one.

 

[dowie]

Looks like it's this house: https://goo.gl/maps/BePRgSQKKnVUvAsd8

Looks pretty nice, not much of a garden and not clear if it even has a garage but the rest of it is pretty cool.

Looks like you'll constantly have people turning around in your driveway to join the ferry queue too, if that kind of thing bothers you.

It's got an electronic gate at the top of the drive according to the google street view on the above link.

 

[dowie]

Never do these things. It's a lottery with one prize with a load of caveats and hoops where you don't get cash.

Nah, that isn't true, there are other prizes like a Porsche, a VW Van, a £250k cash prize etc.. and the grand prize house winner gets £100k cash too.

 

[dowie]

I always go in early doors for £25 every time they announce a new house.

Also make sure you get one of the offers ideally a 4:1 ticket offer.

 

[dowie]

Went for a mooch around when I went down to pick my ex up, awesome spot tbh, not sure if the ferry queue will extend past the driveway, love these live roof coverings there was a bird pecking away at it

I presume the circle bit is automated and turns your car around in the drive or something. Was there a garage that you could see there?

 

[dowie]

Islington? Nice area IMO.

Technically, yes it is. But barely; it's the very Northern part near Finsbury Park. It's about as close to Wood Green and South Tottenham as it is to Islington Highstreet and Angel tube station.

The nicer areas of Islington are in the Southern part of the borough; Barnsbury, Canonbury etc..

 

[dowie]

I know I'm two years late but I'm not sure I get the question/concept of the thread? It just seems like a standard raffle to me, you pay a small amount of money in the hope of a very remote chance of winning a big prize, it will be rigged so that the organisers profit, i.e. the total revenue will exceed the total value of the prizes dispensed.

Well, that's self-evident, it is a property raffle, that they're making a profit wasn't what was questioned, these are the questions I was pondering at the start:

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?
[...]

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?

I can answer this one now FWIW

Do they actually buy the house themselves or do they do a deal with the owner.

It seems like they don't buy the house but do some sort of a deal with the owners; this makes sense as buying as a company would obvs incur a stamp duty payment (at a higher rate too for companies) then the subsequent transfer to the winner would incur another stamp duty payment (possibly at a higher rate too if the winner already owns a home), ergo it seems some sort of deal is done where there is just one transfer of the property to the winner from the current owner (who has presumably been contracted to keep it off the market in return for a later payment).

I thought the other questions were clear enough but if they're not I can clarify but you'd need to tell me which of the questions you don't understand or give me something to go in re: what it is you don't get.