Soldato
Quite like the Ascot one as it's near the High Street, station and my parents live nearby.
Win a house competitions - Omaze etc..
- Thread starter dowie
- Start date
Fancy a 3.5 milling house being semi-detached!
You should try buying in London, or Monaco.
But it is south-facing, so gets good light. I might knock the big dressing room and bedroom 2 into one for a study / workroom, with the end dressing room as a room for most of my computery, and keep the top floor for when friends and family visit.
Hmmm...
I can hardly think of anything worse. No thanks!
Caporegime
Hmm my brother's in south Ascot. Think I'll pre-empt the win by getting a massive 'Avec Dino' picture made up and framed, some Gucci belts and a garish corner couch ready to show on here...
The real problem with this property is that the nearby pub, the Stag, had a bit of a reputation. A friend - a Royal Marine - got beaten up outside it in the mid-2000s. And the other pub, now called Bar 1, was allegedly the haunt of the local mafia, but that was back in the 80s / early 90s.
I see the barbers is still there but the toyshop at the bottom of the high street has gone and the stationers and post office has become an estate agent. Ah, memories...
I remember there being a good Chinese restaurant there.
I see the barbers is still there but the toyshop at the bottom of the high street has gone and the stationers and post office has become an estate agent. Ah, memories...
I remember there being a good Chinese restaurant there.
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Wonder if they actually make much, I had this idea for auction/competition selling houses about 15 years ago but never progressed it. 
Just had a look again, seems I got the map wrong, it looks like there are three other properties created from the main building on that development, dunno what the deal is with the other buildings to the north etc.. seems to be a mix of garages and possibly another house or two:
The others are a bit smaller and the one highlighted in red seems to have a bit of an odd set up with a garden on the opposite side of the road!
the one circled in red below:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-p...l?prop=22695507&sale=74504733&country=england
The one circled in orange below:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-p...l?prop=21840170&sale=74504712&country=england
The blue outline is the prize I think, the triple garage seems to be at the far south of the plot:
The others are a bit smaller and the one highlighted in red seems to have a bit of an odd set up with a garden on the opposite side of the road!
the one circled in red below:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-p...l?prop=22695507&sale=74504733&country=england
The one circled in orange below:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-p...l?prop=21840170&sale=74504712&country=england
The blue outline is the prize I think, the triple garage seems to be at the far south of the plot:
Wonder if they actually make much, I had this idea for auction/competition selling houses about 15 years ago but never progressed it.
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.
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.
Agreed.
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.
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.
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..
Wonder if they actually make much, I had this idea for auction/competition selling houses about 15 years ago but never progressed it.
first one they ever did back in 2017 was a house in Cheshire. After costs they managed to give the charity £1m so that means they made £250k profit after their costs.
sell one or two per annum and you have a pretty decent business.
A google search for the Omaze Devon house draw led me to this forum, and I have to say this thread is very informative.
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?
And they don't even mention a video call in the official rules. They just say the winner will receive a call or email.
Shouldn't they make this crystal clear?
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?
And they don't even mention a video call in the official rules. They just say the winner will receive a call or email.
Shouldn't they make this crystal clear?
Yeah, I'm honestly not concerned about winning! There are 100s on the facebook page who have already packed their bags
I'm not one of them.I just feel like it's probably things like that that will end up encouraging those who think it's some sort of scam.
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.
That makes sense. I can't help feeling that they would be better off avoiding any sort of 'staged' situation but I guess that sometimes it's necessary.
And yeah, I have wondered if they will go back to their big screen reveal where they knock on the winner's door? I assume they'd be able to now that most of the restrictions have gone.