Posted on 09/01/2009 9:48:00 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Due to the economy and weak real estate market, Miles Brannan is raffling off his luxury home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The raffle is attracting buyers from around the world due to both the appealing price of $10 per ticket and international interest in U.S. real estate.
Brannan's raffle is a great deal for foreign investors who want to break into the market because the deed and title will be transferred to the lucky winner free and clear. There will be no need for a jumbo mortgage or creative financing, making the $10 investment an even more attractive offer.
"The $10 ticket makes the drawing more affordable for everyone, and we're seeing activity coming from overseas as well because of the low price. Besides the tickets sold here in the U.S. and in Canada, we've had buyers from European countries like England and Germany, and even as far away as Australia," Brannan commented.
The Florida home's spacious open floor plan includes 6 bedrooms and 6.5 baths. The master suite is 1,000 square feet and has a second story balcony overlooking the waterway. The estate also has a theater room with a 120" screen, 4 car garage, and beautiful winding staircase. Information on other amenities and photos can be found at www.floridaluxuryauctions.com.
Only 300,000 tickets will be sold for this raffle, and the drawing will take place once all tickets have been sold. Once the drawing has taken place the winner will be notified within 24 hours by phone, e-mail or certified mail. Winners do not need to be present to win. All monies collected will be held by Chicago Title Insurance Agency, Inc.
Whoever wins will have a large tax bill. Still a good deal, but I don’t think I could afford the tax I’d have to pay on the 3 million “income”.
bfl
I thought about selling my house that way. Say I need to clear $160,000 to get out of the house and cover selling fees.
I'd charge $20/ticket, sell 16,000 tickets to cover twice what I need and stipulate that half the money collected on the raffle goes to a local charity. I would guarantee odds of 1 in 16,000 - better than most lotteries.
It looks nice and all, but $2300 a month in taxes is insane. You own the house ‘free and clear’, but have to pay an exorbitant rent to Florida to live there. No thanks.
But why not just auction it off again, say for $5/ticket. You'd clear your taxes due, easily.
Where do you get a ticket?
There’s a phone number and other info at the link.
Doubt the home is still worth $3 million.
Still has a lot of value though.
(I’d have to sell it immediately if I won.)
Purchase it online right at the link.
Six bedrooms. You could rent out five of them for $700 per month each, which would allow you to live in the presumably gorgeous master suite, pay the taxes and give you a little extra for the gardener or utilities.
I guess, if you’re willing or young enough to go for the whole collegiate ‘communal living’ type thing. Not my cup of tea, personally.
Well, first of all, you’d end up without a house. Second, the federal income tax and medicare tax would be over 40%, or close to $1.3 million.
If you win a normal lottery, at least you are getting cash, so you can take half of what you get and pay the taxes. Why government should get half your winninngs when they didn’t pay for half the ticket is a question for the ages.
But when you win property, unless you are independently wealthy, you almost always have to sell it off to afford the taxes on your winnings.
Many people in SoFL share homes, probably most are working adults. My friend rents a room/bath to a fireman who’s hardly ever there. His house has bedrooms at different ends of the house, so it works fine.
I’m sure it works fine, but I’m an adult, a married man, and a business owner. Taking on roommates is something that I would consider a real step backward in my life. It would be one of the last things I would ever consider doing. All that just to have two extra bedrooms than I have now? For a payment in taxes alone that’s more than my mortgage is now? With roommates? And we haven’t even paid the homeowners insurance yet, which in hurricane alley is probably as much as the mortgage?
Not just no. Hell no. I’d consider the ticket to be a complete waste of $10. I’d be praying NOT to win if I bought one. Just my luck, I probably would. Then, I’d also have the ‘imputed income’ of my new ‘$10 house’ to consider on top of it. This is one ‘contest winner’ who could just get a heck of a lot more than they bargained for.
You could take out a mortgage to pay the taxes, I guess. But, no matter how you look at this thing, it’s a losing proposition.
“Just your luck” to win it? Oh my, do you win lotteries often? Care to share your numbers?
Heh...the lottery is a tax on people who can’t do math.
It would, however, be just my luck to ‘win’ something that was a total liability and a monkey on my back.
$60 grand per year in a tax bill. Plus the homeowners insurance will be about $25K.
So let's say you win with your $10 investment. And as you stated you owe $1.3 million in taxes. If you turned around and sold it for $2.3 million would you clear $1 million? Or would you now owe more taxes on the sale?
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