$100 NJ House Raffle

Funny story on CBS Evening News - local NYC edition- about a woman raffling her house on e-bay for $100 a chance. She is selling the tickets for this property located in Willingboro, NJ - which is located between Trenton and Camden - not to far from Philly. The house does need some work but looks livable. Here is a look at the property.


Here is the Ebay listing. And here is the article -

How about four bedrooms, a huge living area, cathedral ceilings and a stone fireplace for, say, $100?

Say hello to Hart and her 2,900 square-foot ranch home in Willingboro, which admittedly could use a coat of paint, but is now available on eBay, she says, for the rock-bottom price of $100.

"Well … I had the house on the market for about two-three years. It's not selling so I need to get rid of the house. I cannot afford it anymore," Hart said.

...When asked how much money – or entries – she needs, Hart said, "About 2,000 people to purchase the tickets. To pay the mortgage off."

Hart says the raffle will be drawn on May 1.

She needs at least $200,000 to break-even on the property. Claims that if she does not sell enough tickets she will give all the money back. With all the publicity it has already received she may make a bit of a profit on the property.

I wonder about all the legal implications of selling the house this way - since she made the money from various buyers instead of one how does that work? Also notice she is not actually selling the raffle chances through ebay - she requests that interested people forward her $100 to her paypal account. This is good if she gets over but it will not really be possible to know many bids she actually receives. Hopefully she will give access to local media.

Wonder if this will be the new method that NJ realtors push to sell houses. We will see what happens on May 1st to see if a new trend has started.