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1 August 2016

Buy a Raffle Ticket & Win an Island?

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Selling your house can be a long and stressful process but this couple from Australia discovered a smart & fun way to sell their island resort.

Buying a raffle ticket for $49 (£37.33), would have got you in with a chance of winning the 16-room island resort in Kosrae.

Doug & Sally Beitz, who are originally from Australia, sold raffle tickets to more than 50,000 people.

The prize draw was filmed live online and the winning name pulled was a male called Joshua.

However the build-up of the occasion quickly fell back to earth when the couple were unable to get in touch with the raffle winner, but later successfully managed to track the individual down and give him the amazing news.

Thankfully Joshua, the new island resort owner, was also from Australia; New South Wales. However the couple have expressed their eagerness to protect the winner’s full identity until he comes to terms with his jackpot win.

The couple were eager to sell their resort and return to Australia to enjoy their life as new grandparents, but did not want to sell it the traditional way as they found it ‘really boring.’

Holding the raffle enabled the couple to target competition entrants who were similar to themselves and who would be genuinely interested in owning the resort. The hope for the winning candidate was that they would be someone who enjoyed warm weather, a people person and who enjoys the sense of adventure.

The island is located north of the Solomon Islands and south west of Hawaii and has a population of around 6,500 people.

The competition website, which the couple launched to raffle off the island, advertises the dwelling as a popular location for fishing and diving; is debt free and very profitable; currently employs 16 full-time staff and has a very generous $10,000 (£7,618) cash in the business bank account.

The prize included the resort manages four bed residence, 5 rental vehicles, 2 ten seater vans, a pick-up truck and the resort restaurant.

The competition initially had a reserve for a total of 50,000 tickets to be sold, however this was later removed once the raffle began to generate interest on a world wide scale.

The couple have lived on the island with their family since 1994, however they will now return to Queenisland as millionaires after selling more than the original ticket allocation.

They sold more than 75,000 tickets and will walk away with nearly £3million before costs. 

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