OMAZE house

[walkinthewoodstoday]

So, I'm thinking of entering this competion. Clearly as much chance of winning as me getting an Olympic gold medal, but I keep reading that these 'amazing' houses have issues. Eg one has been massively flooded and another is so close to the cliff edge that it might be uninsurable and when it falls the owners will have a massive clear up bill. The current one is in Finsbury Park and I've even been sad enough to streetview it. Can't see any obvious issues, so why is it an OMAZE house? Please enlighten me!

It only went for over £3mil because Omaze offered them that, as they knew they could get it in ticket sales. It sat on the market for nearly a year, through a sellers market too, at £3.25m so yeah, I am going to stick with it being worth probably closer to £2mil.

Am I being thick, how does it work? Do Omaze (OHHHHHMAAAAZZZE) negotiate a price with the owner in the hope that they can get more in raffle sales? And anything over that price goes to charity?

Omaze buy the house outright from the owner, then hope they sell enough tickets to cover the purchase price, admin costs, as well as an amount to go to charity not forgetting a nice little profit for themselves.

Basically this, Omaze buy the house for more than market value plus a lot of other fancy prices. Sell tickets, take off the cost of the fancy prices, their own admin fees, advertising fees, legal fees, salary fees etc. Then keep 20% on top and give the rest to charity, which has provided them with lots of publicity and a veneer of integrity they wouldn’t get if they didn’t use the charity’s name. I mean the original house owners win, the competition winner wins, the company and charity win, the only losers are the thousands of people paying £10+ for tickets.

I’ve just showed you what £2 million buys - 1000 sq foot less basically. If you want to stick with an unrealistic valuation that’s up to you.

Surely you know how to calculate £/sq ft?

Surely you know house prices are based on much more the £/sqft - one of the biggest factors is location. My house would be worth about £1mil in that location, it’s worth less than half of that where it is actually located. Someone already pointed out the houses you picked are in a nicer location.

A 10 mins walk away does not make a difference of a million.

Thanks! I wonder what happens if they buy a house and can't sell enough tickets.

Do you live in London? A 10 minute walk absolutely makes a difference.

Born and bred Londoner I’m afraid - nowhere in London does 10 mins walk make a difference of a million.

Ha that's funny! One of the houses in Crouch End on the rightmove links is next to mine (I only have a flat which is half the size square footage wise and a different layout - double fronted - at the end of the terrace). The rightmove house is very tatty and in need of a renovation - some rooms clearly have no purpose. It would cost quite a bit too get it to a good standard. It's a smarter location though than the Omaze house.

Sorry I meant the PrimeLocation links!

So I'm thinking this house - sold Christmas 2022 was better value than the Omaze house. A better road and part of the area and amazing outlook across London.

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/details/england-128448950-9745513?s=7107561a2a275c09554333e9a4b00d54b25f3849707ace997cb1327b3d889f6c#/

Or this further into Crouch End.

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/details/england-122598218-16241743?s=d300054f56ec34a5959c07157c8152b7cd2f0921082d06bb839f1dd7f2656938#/

Or this is neighbouring Muswell Hill with much better schools and green spaces than Finsbury Park:

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/details/england-114890072-15316462?s=bd42b3c5f9c33291fff92d54ed2830772fe4321b62bfb8568e374ef9be24d3a7#/

And another one - better value though not as trendy as the Omaze house again in Muswell Hill plus excellent schools and green spaces:

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/details/england-106443392-14351992?s=bae2b2a77ae0cd05c708849671da8840db43d78d5765f72d7ccd4457a5a7ee86#/

I'm not sure how 'better value' works when comparing a house you could buy for £2m with a house you could win for £10 🤣.

I certainly wouldn't complain if I won this house, I'd have to buy a ticket first though...

Why would Omaze help the owners in this way? Why wouldn't they just buy a house that was reasonably priced? They'll be paying cash, so I'm guessing they might well actually get a good deal. Why on earth wouldn't they want a bigger profit margin? Your theory makes zero sense.

No idea, you’d have to ask Omaze. I am guessing the flash looking houses with no flooding or access issues which are reasonably priced sell too quickly. Who knows.

It’s also not just a theory, as has been shown on here, a house in the side of a chalk cliff with one access point, a house that floods, a house with access issues and this one which several posters have confirmed is overpriced for the area. That’s too many to be a coincidence no?

It’s an absurd theory.

One house too near a cliff, one house that was said to be a flood risk. And many houses that were perfectly fine - Wimbledon, Fulham, Ascot, Cornwall etc.

Omaze may have overpaid for this one but by nothing like as much as posters have claimed here and that’s their problem isn’t it? They must know they can cover the cost with ticket sales or they wouldn’t do it.

Maybe they're like a fucked up Robin Hood. They apparently help the 'poor' rich people, who are unable to sell their mansions due to over-inflated prices or extreme issues and give them to people who will then offload them for half of what they're worth as they were free anyway so doesn't really matter 🤷 🙄

👏👏

How does this theory cover the majority of houses with no issues?

If you don’t like it you don’t enter.

It appears my sarcasm has gone over your head.

No, I have agreed with your posts, I just quoted the wrong poster. That was a response to Flapjack.

Oh. I did think it was a bit of an over reaction to my post 😂