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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

About the Omaze house draw…

120 replies

BrokenToy · 30/07/2022 11:28

…that I’m constantly seeing adverts for.

I don’t get it. What does a family on min wage/benefits from Liverpool (for eg) do with a 4million quid Cornwall beach house? How do they run it? You can’t just sell it, houses of that value sit on the market for months/years (and I suspect are the reason they go up for these competitions).

Every time I catch the advert I think this. They also offer a £50k cash prize alongside but that would only see you through about a years worth of bills etc really. We’re on a decent income but every time I see it I think hmm ok we could sell/rent this house and live there, but even then we’d drown in energy bills, maintenance of the swimming pool/tennis courts, you’d need a gardener for the huge grounds, really I’d need a full time cleaner as the house would be too much alongside ft jobs.

Surely you need a millionaire income to fund a house like the ones they give away? Am I missing something?

OP posts:
Kennykenkencat · 31/07/2022 12:25

Stick it in an auction with no reserve and you will get rid of it quickly and then you Cavan do what you like with the money you get. No reason it should sit on the market for years. Even the house that floods would get something.

MangoMangoMango · 31/07/2022 12:38

I agree that the "background checks" are about criminal record - just the same as if you apply to be on Pointless or Who Wants to be a Millionaire you have to agree to a basic DBS check to ensure you're not a recently released bank robber.

It's not about looking for worthy or photogenic winners.

I have had similar thoughts to the OP - we live in Scotland and although COrnwall is lovely and we have been before, I have no desire to have a house there. Let alone a massive house. You'd either have to sell it (and pay capital gains tax probably) or rent it out with all the associated hassle, and pay tax on the income. Or keep it, and pay ££££ every year for insurance, and Council Tax, security, utility bills - nah.

I'll stick to the Lottery and premium bonds.

Connie2468 · 31/07/2022 13:08

Sell it for £2m and buy a nice 4 bed detached in Liverpool mortgage free, pay off your car/credit card and go on a good holiday?

Ponoka7 · 31/07/2022 13:24

BrokenToy · 30/07/2022 13:41

I didn’t mean people in Liverpool aren’t allowed to leave, obviously, but like many people probably wouldn’t want to up sticks and move to the other side of the country.

@BrokenToy
I've chatted about this in and out of the pub because I wasn't sure if I was wrongly feeling a bit offended. You are basically saying that we (those in Liverpool) shouldn't be given the opportunity because we couldn't handle it. Which is our biggest issue? That we aren't equipped to use this opportunity well, if we live in Liverpool, or if we are on min wage? We don't necessarily have a lack of intelligence, creativity that people were you live, on your wage, have. What exactly makes you think that this wouldn't benefit the likes of me? It's all very 'the likes of them wouldn't know what to do with such an opportunity, so don't bother offering it'. Do you think that we are vulnerable because we are Northern and have low earnings?

A four bedroom detached in a good area can be picked up for £500k. You can live quite good on £30k a year, here in Liverpool.

JudithHarper · 31/07/2022 13:43

MangoMangoMango · 31/07/2022 12:38

I agree that the "background checks" are about criminal record - just the same as if you apply to be on Pointless or Who Wants to be a Millionaire you have to agree to a basic DBS check to ensure you're not a recently released bank robber.

It's not about looking for worthy or photogenic winners.

I have had similar thoughts to the OP - we live in Scotland and although COrnwall is lovely and we have been before, I have no desire to have a house there. Let alone a massive house. You'd either have to sell it (and pay capital gains tax probably) or rent it out with all the associated hassle, and pay tax on the income. Or keep it, and pay ££££ every year for insurance, and Council Tax, security, utility bills - nah.

I'll stick to the Lottery and premium bonds.

The 'background checks' also apply to civil offences so, if you have ever been taken to the small claims court and lost, you could be disqualified.

TokyoSushi · 31/07/2022 13:45

I'm glad there's a thread on here, I've always been curious about it, it screams scam, but somehow it's not, I might enter!

Original poster
BrokenToy · 31/07/2022 14:09

Ponoka7 · 31/07/2022 13:24

@BrokenToy
I've chatted about this in and out of the pub because I wasn't sure if I was wrongly feeling a bit offended. You are basically saying that we (those in Liverpool) shouldn't be given the opportunity because we couldn't handle it. Which is our biggest issue? That we aren't equipped to use this opportunity well, if we live in Liverpool, or if we are on min wage? We don't necessarily have a lack of intelligence, creativity that people were you live, on your wage, have. What exactly makes you think that this wouldn't benefit the likes of me? It's all very 'the likes of them wouldn't know what to do with such an opportunity, so don't bother offering it'. Do you think that we are vulnerable because we are Northern and have low earnings?

A four bedroom detached in a good area can be picked up for £500k. You can live quite good on £30k a year, here in Liverpool.

Show quote history

I literally picked Liverpool because alongside Cornwall it’s the biggest journey we do (DS at Uni in Cornwall and friends in Liverpool). We’re midway between the two. I just meant the distance. Probably should have put an ‘or’ in there somewhere between Liverpool and minimum wage.

Also I was pretty clear that it wouldn’t benefit me; your ‘typical’ MN six figure household wanker. It really wasn’t a swipe.

OP posts:
BerryBerryBerryBerry · 01/08/2022 03:19

@BrokenToy I think you should start some sort if group, you can give a subject and set people off ithuis thread has not answered the big questions for me, but made me realise how many we should ask. My OH and I had a tedious drive across the desert yesterday and completely covered it with your thread x

Onlyforcake · 01/08/2022 03:35

It is a sort of a scam though. The people selling make more money than they know they would on the market because they are problem properties. The charity element is a front, they're making very minimal donations it's all going on the wages of the marketing. All so someone gets a property that they have no use for and will struggle to get rid of. If it was in a popular area or had been in demand it would have been sold, rather than the sellers having to use a 'creative' solution.

StaticRatic · 01/08/2022 05:25

Just employ an agent to run it as a holiday let and let them get on with it. You would cover costs and have a decent income from it and keep it as an investment.

BonnesVacances · 01/08/2022 09:21

Bunty55 · 31/07/2022 03:46

What I don't like is the way they involve charities to make the whole thing legit. i mean.. if they are donating to charity it must be OK then?
If you read the small print they only donate a very small amount by comparison to the charity and this is what puts me off.

Alzheimer's got £1m from it. That's not small change and why would the charity not be happy with that? And there was plenty of publicity for the charity IMO.

I'd never heard of the latest one for the house in Kent, Make Some Noise. Now I have.

Benjispruce4 · 13/08/2022 16:47

It’s a genuine draw .It would t be allowed on TV if it was fake. I’d sell it. I’ll let you know next week when I win. 😀

Benjispruce4 · 13/08/2022 16:48

They have to buy the house and do it up remember. The entries pay for that plus some to charity. There’s no obligation to enter.

IrisVersicolor · 13/08/2022 17:59

I failed to win the latest house. 👎🏼

HangerLaneGyratorySystem · 13/08/2022 22:01

The family who won the Cornwall house seem like ordinary people, good luck to them. I also noticed that the house had won an award for design in 2020 - I know earlier in the thread some posters were saying the properties were hard to sell/all had something wrong with them but the award would seem to confirm otherwise?

mind you the latest one have you seen it, literally on the edge of a cliff?!

HangerLaneGyratorySystem · 13/08/2022 22:02

oooh the house has just come up my my laptop in the ad bar to the right of my post!

Qik · 13/08/2022 22:28

I would have it Banskied.
Then I would level it and let nature take over.

nether · 17/08/2022 08:05

Just as a PS to this thread, the draw for the Cornwall house has now happened

I rather suspected these houses were white elephants for some reason or other. But would suit the right people extremely well.

What’s not a white elephant is that they really do give money to the nominated charity.

This time round it was BloodCancerUK, and they say they received £1million

user1471517095 · 17/08/2022 08:17

If you don't want it just sell it. Even if you sell it cheaper than the organiser reckons it's worth it's still money you didn't previously have. Though this reminds me of a work colleague who won a car in our company raffle. She sold it straight back to the dealership for £1k less than the forecourt price. And then proceeded to moan to anyone that would listen that she'd "lost a thousand pounds". Not that she had £15k more than she had last week!

WireSkills · 17/08/2022 10:00

Someone will buy it if you price it low enough. May not be its true value but it's "free" money to the winner.

The current Kent one I wouldn't touch with a bargepole though - how close to the edge of the cliff? How long before it's at the bottom of the cliff??

Outlyingtrout · 17/08/2022 10:08

Well presumably if owning a house in Cornwall didn't appeal because they didn't want to move or sell it, they wouldn't have entered a competition to win a house in Cornwall. Credit them with a bit of common sense.

And if they don't want to move, they'll just sell it. Like all vendors, if they want a quick sale then they'll have to be prepared to accept a lower price for it than they might get if they waited for months/years.

It's bizarre to claim that someone could possibly be disadvantaged by being handed the keys to a £3m house and £50k cash.

Mingot · 25/09/2022 00:51

Has anyone entered the kent house one? Looks like it's about to fall off the cliff.

IrisVersicolor · 25/09/2022 00:57

I always enter and fail to win.

I then bother to check out the family who won and think: it should have been me.

I don’t even care this one is falling into sea, I would sell it before it does. Might have a nice holiday there first.

bellac11 · 25/09/2022 09:14

Has anyone got the address, wondering if there were problems like the other houses where they were virtually uninsurable

tanstaafl · 25/09/2022 10:24

@bellac11
google maps for Kingsdown, Kent.
look for the Kingsdown holiday park chalet park middle of the town on the coast.
if you zoom in on the park, you will see the house (roof) to the bottom right of the park.