Florida Couple Tries Raffle Approach To Unload Their Mansion

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jun 15th 2009 at 10:02AM

One Fort Lauderdale couple has taken a the raffle route to sell their waterfront mansion. As the press release says, moving from their dream home is something the Brannans never thought would happen but the couple has decided that the raffle is the best possible solution. They are selling tickets for $10 and a portion of the proceeds go to a local charity. They are hoping to sell 300,000 tickets which would equate to the house selling for $3 million.

A portion of the proceeds from the drawing will benefit The Mission of St. Francis, a charitable organization in Ft. Lauderdale. The home has six bedrooms including a master suite which measures 1,000 square feet and has a second story balcony overlooking the waterway. The luxury home includes an eat-in kitchen, theater room with a 120" screen, four car garage, and there is a pool and a dock on the waterway. The pictures in the gallery below are small but do show a typical Florida luxury home.

The drawing is set for Christmas Day 2009 or as soon as all the tickets have been sold, whichever comes first. If all the tickets are not sold then a 50/50 drawing will be held with 50 percent of the money collected going to the winner and the other 50 percent going to the charity. Records on Property Shark show that the Brennans paid $2.35 million for the home back in 2005.

To buy a ticket click here.

Gallery: Florida Raffle Mansion

Tags: florida, fort lauderdale, FortLauderdale, house raffle, HouseRaffle

Filed under: Estates

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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)

michellefortune1 Jun 16th 2009 8:01AM

I want to purchase a ticket myself. Can you email us so that we may buy a ticket? If I get a ticket I know I am going to win. My email address is michellefortune1@aol.com. I am a nurse and a mom. If you email me I will send you the ten dollars and wait for the ticket in the mail. Best wishes,
Michelle Fortune Boston

plu5000 Jun 16th 2009 11:46AM

Boy, doesn't anyone read the article? It provides several links you can buy a ticket at???? Remember.......taxes, can you afford the property taxes? insurance and flood coverage.....

Chas Jun 16th 2009 4:08PM

Thats impossible Michelle because if I buy a ticket I am going to win. So how can you win? Mayhaps we should split a ticket this way we can both be right. Seriously, best of luck to you.
Chas

richpl Jun 16th 2009 8:02AM

And don't forget income taxes........50% or so of value......

susan Jun 16th 2009 8:04AM

how can i buy tickets ????????????????

Victoria Jun 16th 2009 8:16AM

YOU CAN BUY TICKETS BY GOING TO THE WEBSITE AT WWW.FLORIDALUXURYAUCTIONS.COM OR BY CALLING 1-888-71-TICKETS.

OR YOU CAN SIMPLY CLICK WHERE IT SAYS "ARE HOPING TO SELL 300,000 TICKETS" IN THE ABOVE ARTICLE.

flblondgal Jun 16th 2009 8:17AM

property taxes in florida.........broward county are roughly 2% of value of home... if homestead.... on purchase..... would get a 25thou deduction on accessment....... a 3 million house would be in the 60 thou area.........not 6 thousand as stated earlier.......

and property insurance would be thru the roof........being on water...... with flood insurance ....... hurricane... lost tagged on for the state of florida and oh yea of course you liability insurance..... a close guess........ would be in the multiple tens of thousands..... ex. ( in 2001 a property valued for land really..... on water with a house on it.... but tear down was 11000. a 6 hundred thousand property...) and prices have gone up alot more...... so
a 3 million home on water without homestead insurance would be somewhere in the 30 plus ....
yes 100 thou just to pay taxes and insurance....... on water

sheldonwin Jun 16th 2009 8:25AM

I dont know alot about lotterys, but something dosnt seem right. I bet if you win you will come across some legeal issues, like is this non profit? if they are makeing a profit off the house, even if some goes to charity, then isnt this gambeling?

now I am not trying to be a prude, but this seems to me illegal.

isnt it illegale to hold your own lottery unless you are a non profit organization? just because you will give a portion to charity does not make you non profit.

pinkpanda2727 Jun 16th 2009 8:35AM

hi I would also like to but a ticket or two I think the why you are doing this is great it lets people have a chance at a new home and also helps you out of one.kind of and easy way for owner good luck to all buyers and you the owner

Charolette

hnlking Jun 16th 2009 8:49AM

WOW For $10 if you win you can just sell it for maybe $1million and you still get a great deal..and live in it while it's on the market

Harmon Jun 16th 2009 8:39AM

The taxes on this place are $34,323 on the assessed value of $1,774,200.

This raffle is a complete rip off as this house is worth about 1.8 tops. They bought it for $2,350,000 in 12/05. They have 1.5 million mortgage and a 300k equity line. Since they bought at the peak of values (at 2.3), this house is worth 1.8 at best. The odds of selling 300,000 tickets are a bit slim, so you're basicly entering a 50/50 value. If someone is stupid enough to win, they hold an asset that is worth 1.8 and will have a 1099 for 3 million. Not a good position to be in with the IRS. The house is just a few blocks north of Oakland Park Blvd, which is a haven for vagrants, gangs, and it's not safe after dark.

The Mission of St Francis is great organization and you should just send them money.

atrebor12 Jun 16th 2009 8:51AM

I live in South Florida in a neighborhood where the houses are $1-2,000,000. Taxes run approximately $25-40,000 per year and I am not within the city limits of the local city. A $3,000,000 house in a similar type neighborhood would indeed run $60,000-$70,000 per year and possibly more if it is within the city limits. It would not be unusual, assuming the house is within good condition and you have good credit for the homeowners insurance on a house like this, especially on the water, to run $15,000 or $20,000 per year. In South Florida the electric bill on a house this size has got to be over $1,000 a month. Don't forget lawn maintanence, pool maintance, someone to help clean a house this size & water bill. If this house is in a homeowners association neighborhood and/or a guarded community, dues could be as high as $300 - $500 per month. So, therefore, even if you got this wonderful house for free, it is still a big nut to crack each month. GOOD LUCK!

ruinedp Jun 17th 2009 3:07AM

What a greedy crock of scammers. Of course from the lovely scamming capital of the US, Fort Lauderdale, glad I sold my condo in 2005. These people have the gull to use a charity as a ruse for making money. Do you get it people? The house will not be auctioned UNTIL they sell the 300,000 tickets, which gets them a nice profit instead of a loss they would get if they tried to sell through a realtor. The kicker, if they do not sell the 300,000 in tickets, they keep their house and 50% of your money. Nice way to make a living for not doing a thing but getting you excited about parting with your money. (lol) They could raffle this thing over and over.

Frank Jun 16th 2009 8:50AM

It's funny reading the responses when people just guess at things.... I went to the Broward Country assessors web site and found the data about the taxes. People please take the time to do your reserach instead of just being lazy and guessing.

This is what the owners paid in taxes after their $25K personal exemption was applied against the homes value.

The tax bill was $34,323.01

Owner & Address:
BRANNAN,LAURA &
BRANNAN,MILES THOMAS
2824 NE 36 ST
FORT LAUDERDALE FL 33308

04/01/2009 10093680001 $34,323.01

As one of the posters commented here and made a good point that the insurance is going to be high as well as ulitilites and maintenace. But you know I went ahead and bought 7 tickets on my own for $76.95 including fees. I would love to live down their for the winter time but probably would sell it after a year or two as would be too expensive for my salary to pay those taxes and other costs.

Good Luck everyone.

wl paradise Jun 16th 2009 9:48AM

Hi Frank........I agree with you. I just bought 10 tickets. If I win I will hold an annual charity event for the Misson of st Francis as a thank you for bringing me this good fortune.

Steve Jun 16th 2009 8:50AM

Taxes would be about $9,000.00 a month!

Frank Jun 16th 2009 8:59AM

In regards to the rules, if they don't sell the 300K tickets the money is split between you and the charity. 50/50..... I just bought my 7 tickets and my raffle numbers is already numbered in the 160, 000 range, so they will sell the rest if they have till Dec 2009 to do so.... I expect them to sell out way before since it is already at that number with what I bought.

Good Luck all, and if you don't want to play then your chance is ZERO plus feel good about helping a worthwhile charity.

Pam Murray Jun 16th 2009 10:22AM

This sounds great, but be careful what you ask for. If you are not independently wealthy this could be an albatross in the making. If you buy this on just a middle class salary, you will be in a boat without a paddle - hazard/hurricane insurance, real estate taxes, utilities and general maintenance and upkeep will be out of sight.

sid Jun 16th 2009 9:13AM

The property was listed at 2.6 and did not sell. The taxes ar 34k per year. Homeowners would be 10-20. It's worth 1.8.

For 10 dollars , who cares, take a shot