Email
Print
Letter to Editor
ShareComox family raffle off their UK home
By Erin Haluschak - Comox Valley Record
Published: September 30, 2008 3:00 PM
Updated: September 30, 2008 3:33 PM
Rather then the usual raffle prize of gift certificates, merchandise or coupons, a recently-immigrated Comox family is raffling off something of far bigger value — their home.
Having just moved to Canada six months ago and settling here with their three children, Graeme and Debi Sargent decided they needed a new strategy to sell their Southampton home in the UK.
Sargent noted he came upon the idea as he heard about a similar raffle on the radio while driving to work, and the notion stuck with him.
“I thought now more than ever would be the right time to try something like this,” he added.
Having fallen in love with the Comox Valley while on a trip a few years ago, Sargent said he didn’t like the idea of having two mortgages, so attempting a house-raffle was only a natural progression for selling their England home.
Set at a price of 100 pounds — approximately $188 Canadian — a ticket, and with a limit of 7,000, Sargent hopes they will sell out by the Oct. 31 deadline. The four-bedroom rancher was designed and built primarily by Sargent.
The raffle winner will own the house outright, and there will be no duty or solicitor fees to pay. The market price while the home was listed was 475,000 pounds — approximately $895,000 Canadian.
Sargent hopes that word-of-mouth advertising will help in making the raffle a sellout, and said that he and his wife would donate part of the money raised to a hospice in England.
For more information or to purchase a ticket, visit www.nicehousenomortgage.com
reporter@comoxvalleyrecord.com
