I didn’t realise people entered thinking they were going to live there. I presumed everyone entered so that they could sell it.
The woman who does the voiceover for these Omaze adverts does it in a really odd, over-pronounced way, as if she’s been generated by slightly faulty AI.
> But very few people choose to live in their new homes permanently. According to David Adams, head of David Adams Luxury Property, this is because the bills that come with such homes are eye-watering and barely covered by the cash prize.
I mean 😂. Of course a big house requires a certain amount of money to run
Tldr: they can’t afford them long term. Omaze gives them cash which covers 2-3 years of running costs. After that, unless you’ve got a high paying job (in which case you’re statistically unlikely to be entering lotteries), you can’t afford the upkeep.
My brother is and electrician who has worked on one of these houses after it was won. New owners had to rip out almost all the wiring as it was a legitimate safety hazard. Bunch of other stuff wrong as well like cheap or faulty fixture’s IIRC.
I always just imagine I’d have one big party there, then immediately put it up for sale.
Not like the winner would likely be living down the road from the house they won.
Surprisingly not the reason I thought it might be – I would have put it straight up for sale because my social circle is based around where I live, so a multimillion pound mansion in London or Cornwall like in the article is useless to me, but a few million in cash would do a lot more good personally.
It seems like the main issue is running and owning a place like that, with 5 figure council tax and 4 figure energy bills digging into the funds, which I can’t even fathom – both of mine are a tenth of that, and that may not be a unique experience from reading the article (also, fuck reach for that entire page and the post-exit page too)
I get the impression Omaze buys up these prime properties from sellers looking for a quick sale, doing the bare minimum of work on them and hiring a staging company to temporarily furnish them for the pictures/video and the rest is spent on marketing. Once the winner gets the keys its up to them to deal with the fallout, e.g dodgy electrics or stuff that would normally come up on a survey.
And that’s if they win…there was a case recently in my city from one of these competition firms who ran a competition to win a house in quite a prestigious postcode. The winner was drawn and they did the whole marketing piece of knocking on the winners door with flowers and an envelope, except it turned out the competition didn’t raise enough funds so the winner just got a £5k cheque instead. I think the ASA got involved and the firm got told to remove the doorstep video etc
Depending when I won, I’d probably live there for one summer for some Saltburn’ish opulence. After that sell up and go off on a fuck off holiday.
I honestly think this is nonsense. Yes, some of them are big houses. But they’re almost always new properties and built to modern standards, and will have pretty impressive green credentials.
£100k a year, is fucking nonsense.
That’s 357,000 kwh’s of electricity.
These homes are not using over a megawatt of electricity a day. That’s absurd.
And of course, gas is even cheaper per kwh.
The reason most people sell them, is because they’re nowhere near where they live and where their friends and family are.
I imagine that the council tax and heating/energy costs are eye-wateringly expensive, like 5 figures each.
So yeah, I’d sell the house and bank the cash. Then return to a more modest home that I can afford to run and maintain.
Is this what happens to those bonkers houses on grand designs after they bankrupt the owners?
I mean, whatever it is, you’re still gonna end up significantly better off than you were before, providing you sell it.
It’s just a more long-winded, and probably at times frustrating, way of winning a lot of money.
I’d flog it. I’d rather have a smaller but nice house and an extra 300k in my bank account than a massive house and not 300k in my bank account.
I would live in it, maybe rent out a room or 2 to people that work from home to pay for the upkeep.
I’m more… omazed, that these prizes were actually real with real winners. I’d originally thought it was it a bit of a scam.
I wouldn’t mind winning the one they offered in Coombe near Wimbledon. Sure it would probably cost as much as what I would normally pay in rent to own, but I’d have a grand looking house in London that I could always sell on.
Omaze is a huge scam anyway. The charities get very little compared to the amount of money omaze cream off the top as it’s classed as a lottery.
The only people who win from Omaze are the two guys who own it.
It’s not a curse, it’s literally just maths.
Unless you can afford the upkeep it’s better to sell off or turn into a business.
I certainly would insta sell any large property if I won it unless it was literally a few miles from where I live and not so big I can’t afford the bills and a cleaner.
For many not having a mortgage was literally only a few hundred, nowhere near enough to cover the difference in bills.
It would make more sense to have a normal house as the prize along with a holiday, car & cash. It’s a lovely dream to own a big house but realistically it is just a dream to live in one unless you are wealthy. Why not offer to pay for a house in the area the winner wants to live so they can carry on working or be close to family. I wouldn’t want to move to Scotland to live in a fancy house when all my family & friends are in Yorkshire.
Where do Omaze get and afford these houses anyway, and how much gets passed on to charity. Always seemed to be scammy or dubious to me.
Assume it’s not subject to stamp duty.
Honestly I’d be in the same. Mansion is expensive, from both cost of running it and tax bands. First thing I’d do is market it, hope to sell it quick, deduct whatever tax needed. The money would be more useful than a house I can’t afford to live in.
I work remotely so it being in the middle of nowhere isn’t that issue (except shopping stuff), but cost-wise. I’m amazed some people think logically they could live in a house like that.
never considered this, council tax bill is approx £1500 per year, but probably less, if it was suddenly £15000 then would be stuff, surprised more people do not rent them out ?
but 2-3 years living in it before selling on, why not 🙂
23 comments
I didn’t realise people entered thinking they were going to live there. I presumed everyone entered so that they could sell it.
The woman who does the voiceover for these Omaze adverts does it in a really odd, over-pronounced way, as if she’s been generated by slightly faulty AI.
> But very few people choose to live in their new homes permanently. According to David Adams, head of David Adams Luxury Property, this is because the bills that come with such homes are eye-watering and barely covered by the cash prize.
I mean 😂. Of course a big house requires a certain amount of money to run
Tldr: they can’t afford them long term. Omaze gives them cash which covers 2-3 years of running costs. After that, unless you’ve got a high paying job (in which case you’re statistically unlikely to be entering lotteries), you can’t afford the upkeep.
My brother is and electrician who has worked on one of these houses after it was won. New owners had to rip out almost all the wiring as it was a legitimate safety hazard. Bunch of other stuff wrong as well like cheap or faulty fixture’s IIRC.
I always just imagine I’d have one big party there, then immediately put it up for sale.
Not like the winner would likely be living down the road from the house they won.
Surprisingly not the reason I thought it might be – I would have put it straight up for sale because my social circle is based around where I live, so a multimillion pound mansion in London or Cornwall like in the article is useless to me, but a few million in cash would do a lot more good personally.
It seems like the main issue is running and owning a place like that, with 5 figure council tax and 4 figure energy bills digging into the funds, which I can’t even fathom – both of mine are a tenth of that, and that may not be a unique experience from reading the article (also, fuck reach for that entire page and the post-exit page too)
I get the impression Omaze buys up these prime properties from sellers looking for a quick sale, doing the bare minimum of work on them and hiring a staging company to temporarily furnish them for the pictures/video and the rest is spent on marketing. Once the winner gets the keys its up to them to deal with the fallout, e.g dodgy electrics or stuff that would normally come up on a survey.
And that’s if they win…there was a case recently in my city from one of these competition firms who ran a competition to win a house in quite a prestigious postcode. The winner was drawn and they did the whole marketing piece of knocking on the winners door with flowers and an envelope, except it turned out the competition didn’t raise enough funds so the winner just got a £5k cheque instead. I think the ASA got involved and the firm got told to remove the doorstep video etc
Depending when I won, I’d probably live there for one summer for some Saltburn’ish opulence. After that sell up and go off on a fuck off holiday.
I honestly think this is nonsense. Yes, some of them are big houses. But they’re almost always new properties and built to modern standards, and will have pretty impressive green credentials.
£100k a year, is fucking nonsense.
That’s 357,000 kwh’s of electricity.
These homes are not using over a megawatt of electricity a day. That’s absurd.
And of course, gas is even cheaper per kwh.
The reason most people sell them, is because they’re nowhere near where they live and where their friends and family are.
I imagine that the council tax and heating/energy costs are eye-wateringly expensive, like 5 figures each.
So yeah, I’d sell the house and bank the cash. Then return to a more modest home that I can afford to run and maintain.
Is this what happens to those bonkers houses on grand designs after they bankrupt the owners?
I mean, whatever it is, you’re still gonna end up significantly better off than you were before, providing you sell it.
It’s just a more long-winded, and probably at times frustrating, way of winning a lot of money.
I’d flog it. I’d rather have a smaller but nice house and an extra 300k in my bank account than a massive house and not 300k in my bank account.
I would live in it, maybe rent out a room or 2 to people that work from home to pay for the upkeep.
I’m more… omazed, that these prizes were actually real with real winners. I’d originally thought it was it a bit of a scam.
I wouldn’t mind winning the one they offered in Coombe near Wimbledon. Sure it would probably cost as much as what I would normally pay in rent to own, but I’d have a grand looking house in London that I could always sell on.
Omaze is a huge scam anyway. The charities get very little compared to the amount of money omaze cream off the top as it’s classed as a lottery.
The only people who win from Omaze are the two guys who own it.
It’s not a curse, it’s literally just maths.
Unless you can afford the upkeep it’s better to sell off or turn into a business.
I certainly would insta sell any large property if I won it unless it was literally a few miles from where I live and not so big I can’t afford the bills and a cleaner.
For many not having a mortgage was literally only a few hundred, nowhere near enough to cover the difference in bills.
It would make more sense to have a normal house as the prize along with a holiday, car & cash. It’s a lovely dream to own a big house but realistically it is just a dream to live in one unless you are wealthy. Why not offer to pay for a house in the area the winner wants to live so they can carry on working or be close to family. I wouldn’t want to move to Scotland to live in a fancy house when all my family & friends are in Yorkshire.
Where do Omaze get and afford these houses anyway, and how much gets passed on to charity. Always seemed to be scammy or dubious to me.
Assume it’s not subject to stamp duty.
Honestly I’d be in the same. Mansion is expensive, from both cost of running it and tax bands. First thing I’d do is market it, hope to sell it quick, deduct whatever tax needed. The money would be more useful than a house I can’t afford to live in.
I work remotely so it being in the middle of nowhere isn’t that issue (except shopping stuff), but cost-wise. I’m amazed some people think logically they could live in a house like that.
never considered this, council tax bill is approx £1500 per year, but probably less, if it was suddenly £15000 then would be stuff, surprised more people do not rent them out ?
but 2-3 years living in it before selling on, why not 🙂
Look im an ‘expert’
Everyone in the area thinks im an oik.
I cant afford to run the place.
Its miles from my job.