Raffle my home (Atlanta, Union City: lawyer, house, neighborhood)

[taralee1495]

I saw this question asked and there were no replies, so I will try one more time and see if anyone has come up with an answer.

I found on the internet where a lady is having a contest to give her home away. You have to complete an essay, pay $50, and your entered. In here state, Maine, she can not do a raffle, but she can do a contest on skill, so she chose an essay contest.

Does anyone know how I could go about doing this? Or is it legal in the state of Georgia? There was a house raffled off a few years back close to my neighborhood, but I don't know the details on it. I also found a home in Union City where they were raffling tickets for a home. It was ran through a charity. So I'm assuming with the raffle money they paid the home off and the charity kept the rest. Either way would be fine. I would love to get some money back on my seven year investment, but if not, then a charity would be great too.

Can anyone help with this????

Thanks!!

[atlantagreg30127]

A lawyer would have to answer the legal specs on whether you can do it here or not, but I've read about people doing this in various other states before. It CAN backfire on you, though.

For instance, I can't remember where it was, but a woman did it thinking she'd get thousands of entries. She didn't. She earned a total of something like $25,000 in entry fees, but by law, she was forced to pick one "winner" and give her estimated $225,000 home away to them. It may have had something to do with specific laws to whatever state that was in though, I'm not sure, but it's just a FYI to let you know that the fine print in law can kill you if you're not exactly sure what the results might be for such a plan.

[marmac]

Years back a person did that in Minnesota on a rural house and 40 acres.
He wanted to move and couldn't sell the place.

He got lots of media coverage but was smart enough to set a minimum number of entries . He stated, if the minimum was not met, the money would be refunded.

He fell far short of the minimum entries and returned everyone's entry and money.

[marmac]

The problem was, unlike a state lottery that can promote it daily, he got entries when the media jumped on the story at the beginning.

The day after, it was "old news" and the media moved on.

Without constant reminders, people lost interest.

Minnesota Lottery just completed its annual New Years day raffle. They raffle off 500,000 tickets only ($10) and announce the winners on New Years Day
2-Million dollar winners
4-$100,000 winners
4-$25,000 winners
100--$500 winners.


The advantage the State had is ( besides it being legal) was they kept it in the news everyday since Thanksgiving.

They gave daily updates on how many tickets were sold and how many were left.

Having an individual conduct an "essay contest" to accomplish the same has the drawback of not being able to keep it in the news daily til all are sold.

By the way------yesterday the lottery introduced the 2 people who won the Million dollar prizes.

More publicity for next year's raffle.

[apples2peaches]

Originally Posted by taralee1495

I saw this question asked and there were no replies, so I will try one more time and see if anyone has come up with an answer.

I found on the internet where a lady is having a contest to give her home away. You have to complete an essay, pay $50, and your entered. In here state, Maine, she can not do a raffle, but she can do a contest on skill, so she chose an essay contest.

Does anyone know how I could go about doing this? Or is it legal in the state of Georgia? There was a house raffled off a few years back close to my neighborhood, but I don't know the details on it. I also found a home in Union City where they were raffling tickets for a home. It was ran through a charity. So I'm assuming with the raffle money they paid the home off and the charity kept the rest. Either way would be fine. I would love to get some money back on my seven year investment, but if not, then a charity would be great too.

Can anyone help with this????

Thanks!!

I just read today that a man in Georgia was arrested for trying to raffle his house. Apparently he got the idea from watching an Oprah episode.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by apples2peaches

I just read today that a man in Georgia was arrested for trying to raffle his house. Apparently he got the idea from watching an Oprah episode.

Story: Man Busted For Trying To Raffle His House - 11Alive.com | WXIA | Atlanta, GA

[crwill1]

[SIZE=3]For anyone interested, there is now a book about home raffles titled, "The Home Raffle Book" and is located at .::The Home Raffle Book::.. It's a must read for anyone conducting or participating in a home raffle and it includes a sample business plan.[/SIZE]