Connecticut house raffle laws under review

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Apr
13
2009

Connecticut house raffle laws under review

Just like in most other US states, Connecticut law currently does not permit homeowners to run house raffles. However, with the real estate market struggling to recover, the idea of changing home raffle law was recently presented to Shaun Donovan, US Secretary of the Housing and Urban Development in Hartford.

While he didn't endorse it immediately, according to this article on the WFSB.com website a task force is considering whether this innovative idea could help homeowners sell their properties in alternative ways.

"In December and January, 45 percent of all home sales in this country were distressed sales, so I think every city and state ought to be looking at creative ways to turn what has been a community blight into a community asset," Donovan said.

The task force will review house raffles as a means of avoiding foreclosures across the state. Depending on the outcome, it may consult another group with a view of amending home raffle legislation in Connecticut.

What do you think? Should government be supporting changing legislation to help homeowners run house raffles more openly? Alternatively, just like realtor Scott Broder in this article, do you have reservations about encouraging more people to run similar property raffles?

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Great idea
I think more states and governments should look at this across the world. I'm based in Detroit and foreclosures are a fact of life every day. I know for a fact people would love to do this if it was legal and they could sell enough tickets. I hope governments step up and show some initiative and a bit of lateral thinking given the mess they put us in frankly.
Josh , 14 Apr 2009
0
Why not?
I just don't see why legislators are being so obtuse about this issue. In the UK loads of homeowners have lost literally thousands of pounds trying to set up this type of scheme as a competition rather than a lottery as they are illegal here as well. Many of them simply didn't really know how to organise them properly and they got burned as a result. Why should it not be made simpler by governments, after all they just announced this £2,000 incentive to scrap your motor in return for a new one I don't see why this couldn't be put forward as well.
AmandaL , 21 Apr 2009
George
The Bleedin' Obvious ...
Which means it's unlikely to get done anytime soon. And is anyone surprised -- why do they even ask them? -- that the realtors, estate agents, are against the idea? Yes, there are a few good agents, just as there are a few good lawyers (I have two), but part of the reason I decided to do my raffle was that I'd given my holiday complex to three so-called "top agents", who arrived in their, respectively, BMW 735i, shiny Lexus, and Mercedes something posh (casting disdainful glances at my battered old Golf), and deigned to opine that yes, for only a cool quarter of a million they'd condescend to put a photo of my place in their window. Which they did, after which they proceeded to send me an endless parade of penurious would-be hotelier wannabes with no experience, and absurdly enough, no money. They hadn't qualified them at all. Don't get me wrong; some of them were nice people, but not people who ever in the world should have been sent to view a multi-million holiday complex. So let's leave the agents out of the equation and pass laws to simply allow people to raffle their homes as they see fit. Putting in a clause that would require a portion of the sale to go to charity would make sense in these parlous times for everyone, including charities, but the main message that ought to penetrate, even into the rock-like heads of our legislators, is that house raffles are win-win-win-win propositions: good for the sellers, who get their price if they do the job right, good for a punter, who gets a house for the price of lunch, good for a charity, which gets a windfall, and even good for the government, which gets its taxes. Oh yes, it's even good for the bloody banks, because some foreclosures may be avoided, and foreclosures do no good for anyone. George Scott of the raffle for people smart enough to get their minds around "the bleedin' obvious".
George Scott , 26 Apr 2009

busy