Latest news with #ImeldaCollins
Extra.ie
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
American woman wins Leitrim home worth over €300k for just €6
A woman has won a house in Leitrim worth over €300,000 — for just over a fiver. It's the way that most young people can only dream of getting a house/the only way we'll actually be able to get a house in this day and age — with Imelda Collins raffling off her picturesque Leitrim home, sitting on 1.75acres of land, for just £5 (€6) per ticket. Speaking about the decision to sell the house, Imelda reckoned that she would've fetched a price tag of around €300,000 for the home, which underwent extensive renovations and includes sensational views, a large open plan living and dining area, and two bedrooms. A woman has won a house in Ireland worth over €300,000 — for just over a fiver. Pic: Win A House Near Sligo/Facebook To sweeten the deal, Imelda will be paying the legal and stamp duty fees before handing over the keys — with American woman Kathleen Spangler winning the incredible home. Imelda Collins outside the cottage in Co Leitrim. Pic: Raffall Imelda said that both she and Kathleen are 'over the moon' with the raffle, with her adding to Galway Beo that it was a 'win win situation.' Pic: Win A House Near Sligo/Facebook The home has a south facing aspect meaning it gets sun from sunrise to sunset (or cloud, Irish weather eh?) and underwent extensive renovations including new insulated floors, a vaulted ceiling with a skylight, and an energy efficient new oil boiler among many others. Pic: Raffall The home is also just 15 minutes from Sligo town, with a beautiful white and red facade. Pic: Raffall More photos from the home can be found below Pic: Raffall Pic: Raffall Pic: Raffall Pic: Raffall Pic: Raffall
The Journal
23-05-2025
- Business
- The Journal
American woman wins Leitrim home in online raffle
IN THE MIDST of a housing crisis, a unique opportunity presented itself for those searching for a home – a simple raffle. The home up for grabs was a two-bedroom bungalow in Co Leitrim. Advertised as sitting on a 1.75 acre site with a large living and dining area, a bathroom, and a kitchen, the property also has large gardens at the front and back. The house underwent a complete renovation in 2022 and the competition said it would go to the winner fully furnished. 'The current housing crisis in Ireland makes it extremely difficult to buy or rent, so this is an incredible opportunity,' the organiser said. The raffle, called 'Win a House Near Sligo', was hosted on UK-based raffle site Raffall. One ticket to be in with the chance to win the home cost €5.92. The winner will also have stamp duties and legal fees covered. The stipulation was that there must be a minimum of 150,000 tickets sold for the raffle to go ahead, which would amount to €888,000. Yesterday, with the minimum number of tickets met, the raffle went ahead. The winner posted a short message on the site: 'If this is indeed real, I absolutely accept.' The raffle's organiser Imelda Collins confirmed to The Journal that she was 'delighted' that the raffle was a success and that the winner of her home was 'thrilled'. Advertisement Imelda Collins / Raffall Imelda Collins / Raffall / Raffall The winner of the home is a woman from Chicago, Illinois in the US. Imelda said that the winner 'is absolutely delighted to have won my beautiful home Butterfly Cottage.' The raffle has previously been covered by The New York Times . Collins told the American newspaper that she hopes to use the proceeds from the raffle to move to Italy, where she met her husband who still resides there. Raffall's founder and CEO Stelios Kounou told the NYT that to date, 18 houses have been successfully sold on the platform, meaning that they had hit sales targets and legally transferred the properties to the winners. Roughly 50 others attempted to do the same but didn't reach their targets. Collins's plan if she didn't reach the minimum of 150,000 tickets sold was to award the winner of the raffle with half of the ticket revenue. Kounou said that gross ticket sales on Raffall for those raffling properties have varied between roughly €475,000 and €1.14m. Collins said that she had purchased the house for the cost of €133,000 in 2022 and estimates that it is now worth around €300,000 due to the extensive renovations and further market demand. The raffle is legally classed as a 'prize competition' rather than gambling, as entrants must correctly answer a question when purchasing a ticket to be entered into the draw: 'Which colour is associated with Ireland?' Of the total ticket revenue, 10% is to go to the raffle site, while additional funds gleaned from the raffle are subject to tax and covering the winner's costs in legally acquiring the house. Imelda said that she spent a considerable amount promoting and marketing the raffle. Imelda previously said that she would make a donation to the ISPCA from the ticket revenue, a charity that is 'very close to [her] heart.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
CBC
21-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Somebody will get this Irish countryside house for $9, if all goes according to plan
Social Sharing Imelda Collins says she's figured out a way to sell her home for peanuts, while still turning a profit. Instead of putting her house near Sligo, Ireland, on the open market through a real estate agent, she's raffling it off to a lucky winner, with tickets priced at £5, or roughly $9.30 Cdn. "I just thought that was a cool idea," Collins told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. If all goes well, she sees it as a win-win for her and the new homeowner. "The dream winner would be somebody that can't afford a house, or somebody that is struggling to get on the property ladder, which I'm sure a lot of people are," she said. "If my raffle is successful, in the end, I would hope to make more money than had I sold it on the open market." How it works While raffling is an unconventional way of selling your home, Collins says it's become something of a trend in Britain. She got the idea after reading a news article about a woman in Dublin who raffled her apartment so she could live her dream of moving to Paris. Collins says she plans to use the proceeds of her raffle to move to Italy to be with her husband and his family. "Initially, my husband ... thought I was crazy, to be quite honest," she said. "I assured him I'd done all the research. I wasn't jumping into it." Collins is running the raffle through Raffall, a British company that primarily runs online charity raffles. "We didn't anticipate house raffles," Stelios Kounou, Raffall's chief executive and founder, told the New York Times. "We never imagined people would do that." The contest, which closes Thursday, is open to people anywhere in the world. The company requires a minimum sale of 150,000 tickets for someone to win the house. If Collins falls short of that, the winner gets 50 per cent of the ticket sales, Raffall takes its 10 per cent cut, and she keeps her home. Kounou says the platform has successfully raffled 18 houses so far, while another 50 people tried but failed to reach the ticket sales target. Only bidders are allowed to know how many tickets have been sold so far, says Collins. But she's not worried. "I am very, very, very near to my goal," she said. "I can divulge that." Is it legal? To ensure everything is on the up-and-up, Raffall classifies its raffles as "prize competitions," as opposed to lotteries, which cannot be run for commercial or private gain. Britain's Gambling Commission defines a prize competition as one in which "the outcome is determined by the participants' skill, judgment or knowledge." To adhere to those standards, Raffall includes an entry question to qualify for the draw. For Collins' raffle, the question is: "Which colour is associated with Ireland?" In Canada, the rules around raffling and contests vary by province. Provincial gambling authorities have, at times, investigated or shut down real estate raffles and other contests to win homes. In an article posted by U.K. law firm Home Property Law, lawyer Cordelia Grassby urges potential buyers to take precautions before buying a raffle ticket for a house, including making sure you can afford utilities and maintenance costs, asking about associated legal fees and taxes, and, if possible, visiting the property or having it surveyed. Collins says she's promised to take care of the stamp duty land tax and any legal fees associated with the purchase. The house, she says, has been recently renovated, and comes fully furnished. Collins says anyone would be lucky to win her house, which she lovingly calls "Butterfly Cottage." Nestled on 0.7 hectares (1.75 acres) of rolling green hills, Collins says the home is surrounded by nature. From her porch, she watches rabbits hopping through the grass. There's a swallow building a nest beneath her roof, and a robin who stops regularly to eat from her hands. "I've had some really special experiences with nature," she said. "And the winner will hopefully experience similar things to what I did, you know, if they love nature as much as I do." She says she's brought that love of nature inside, too, with bright colours and nature-themed wallpaper, curtains and bedding. "Ireland is well known for not having good weather. So my idea was even if it's raining outside, at least you're sitting inside in your beautiful living room and you're looking at the beautiful design and the wallpaper and it's bright and cheerful," she said. She admits just selling Butterfly Cottage through a real estate agent might have been easier. But she likes the novelty of the raffle, and is fond of the idea that someone will get a house for less than the price of a lunch. "It would be lovely for somebody who can't afford a home to win," she said.
