Apologies for yet another win a house blog but there’s a lot going on in this particular area at the moment. The number of new properties being put up for ‘raffle’ has increased considerably with would-be sellers excited by the success of other promotions. The fact that this is around 8% of all home competitions tracked by Loquax since 2017 still doesn’t deter others from jumping on this bandwagon.
Three Failures
However maybe a reality check on the last three competitions to close might make a few consider their options before launching a promotion. This is because the last three to close (Better Chance, Coles Hall and Flat In Fife) all failed and one of them was quite a massive failure. First off though Flat In Fife was a Raffall competition which we completely missed until it closed. The prize was a two bed apartment in Scotland and ticket prices were just £1.30. However it only sold 2862 tickets. This meant that the owner still owns the flat and a winner is better off by almost £2800. Not bad for a £1.30 ticket. Raffall are better off by almost £1000 for doing very little! Given that the majority of properties we’re currently listing are hosted by Raffall then they’re going to be the big winners when the dust settles. The home owners who have failed to award their properties aren’t going to be quite as happy or in profit.
Coles Hall Awards Cash Prize
Coles Hall is the second win a house competition overseen by Michael Chatha. He successfully gave away Shrubbery Farm but unfortunately hasn’t replicated that success with Coles Hall. Instead of the propery being award a cash alternative winner will now be created. We’ll find out at midday on 29th August the scale of the prize. This should give us an indicator of just how close or far they were from their ticket target. It’s not all bad news though as Chatha’s other project Win Your Dream is looking like it could create a home winner. Although this competition has had a second extension reports suggest that ticket sales are good. According to a comment on our review page around three quarters of the tickets have been sold and with a final push it should see the competition reach it’s desired end point. If not then it will at least create a substantive cash prize winner.
1200 Tickets Sold For Better Chances
Also creating a cash prize winner is Better Chances. This competition, that apparently featured on Dave and HGTV, gave entrants the chance to win a £445,000 home in Borehamwood. Tickets cost £11 but insufficient tickets were sold to award the property. In fact according to a post on Facebook just 1200 tickets were sold for this competition. That’s revenues of £13200 for a competition that has run for almost 10 months. That’s astonishingly bad competition management. Based on their FAQ we expect a £6000 cash prize winner but even so 1200 ticket sales is a massive failure. Although other current competitions seem to be doing well including a couple on Raffall, the above should stand as a reminder that choosing the win a house competition process to sell your home is not a guarantee of success. Whilst we suspect that it’s not cost Flat In Fife much money we do wonder about Coles Hall and Better Chances. The latter most certainly must have made a loss as they’ve paid out for advertising but still sold less tickets that Flat In Fife that did none.
Lessons To Be Learnt
There are a few lessons to be learnt from these three competitions. Firstly replicating a formula doesn’t always generate the same result. Michael Chatha adopted the same approach for Coles Hall as for Shrubbery Farm. Obviously one property appealed more to entrants than the other but we also wonder whether the enthusiasm for his own property sale was lacking for Coles Hall. Another point is that Shrubbery Farm launched at a time when there was hardly any competition for people’s cash and attention. Timing is definitely key! Advertising your house competition is a good idea but no advertising means no chance of success as in the case of Flat In Fife. However the wrong kind of advertising, an expensive ticket price and perhaps a brand that doesn’t explain what it does can be expensive. Better Chances doesn’t sound as clear cut in it’s aims as Raffle House for example. £11 a ticket is pretty expensive especially for a £445,000 property. Which also leads us to the issue of the prize on offer. It needs to be desirable and financially manageable for entrants. Get enough of those interested and at the right price and your competition may have a better chance.