Snap up Joan's home for a quid (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Snap up Joan's home for a quid

A WEBSITE offering people the chance to win houses for a pound has been launched from Swindon.

The site www.houseforapound.com is the brainchild of Joan Miller, 51, who dreamed up the idea while trying to sell her house in Locksgreen Crescent, Moredon.

Vendors are invited to list their home with the site for a price above market value for a set period of, say, 12 weeks.

Visitors to the site are then invited to enter a competition to win the house by writing a slogan for the website and paying a £1 fee. The slogan element makes it a competition, sidestepping the laws governing raffles.

The writer of the best slogan wins the house provided enough entries have been made to cover the reserve price.

The seller of the house keeps the money, with 20 per cent of any profit they make going to the website as commission.

If the reserve price is not met, the writer of the best slogan wins 80 per cent of the entry money paid during the period for which the competition is open, while the website keeps the remaining 20 per cent.

Mrs Miller, whose partner in the business is internet expert Aaron Agates, is married to David, a carpenter, and has two sons Luke, 29, and Marcus, 17.

She is an artist and designer and also teaches part-time at Swindon College.

She said: "I was trying to sell my house a couple of years ago, and two potential sales fell through because of problems with the property chain.

"Also, there are a lot of people who are unable to get onto the property ladder because of rising prices. I then had the idea of a website like this."

The idea remained just that until she happened to meet Mr Agates, 30, of Watermead, Stratton, a business expert with the skills to set up the site and ensure it fulfilled the legal obligations.

Mr Agates said: "It's a great way of selling a property. And, with the chance of winning a house with a slogan and one pound entry fee, everyone's a winner."

Currently, there is only one property listed on the site Mrs Miller's own four-bedroomed semi-detached house.

Valued at £180,000 by an estate agent, the property has a reserve price on the site of £270,000.

Mrs Miller said: "I have put my house where my mouth is!

"As the site takes off, we are hoping more properties will be listed and we can hold more competitions perhaps as many as one a week."

Estate agent Phil Holland, manager of Dreweatt Neate in Wood Street, Old Town, said that anyone thinking of entering the competition or sending in money should examine the rules carefully.

He added: "I don't think very much of the odds you get for your pound."

Last August, Swindon man Bob Foulds tried to sell his four-bedroomed house in Moredon for £176,000 on the eBay internet auction site. However, in spite of the fact the price was well below the £190,000 value of the property, it failed to sell online.