Woman who got death threats after raffling £590k home says she's doing it again
A woman who raffled off her £590,000 self-built dream home is doing the same thing again - despite recieving death threats the first time around.
Jennifer Matthews made the difficult decision to downsize from her five-bedroom detached home in Adlington, Lancs, in December 2020 after being diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition.
She had built the home with her husband, David. But the Covid pandemic meant the normal selling process was more complicated than usual, and when viewing requests began to flood in she she found herself exhausted.
Her and David took unorthodox approach of raffling off the home, along with her prized Ferrari 360 Spider, which was valued at close to £100,000. She's now doing it again with a different house, and says it will help people who are struggling to get on the property ladder.
The house in Adlington which was raffled off by Jennifer and David Matthews (Lancs Live/MEN MEDIA)Jennifer, who was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia in 2016, had put the first home on Raffall, an online forum used to host competitions. Strict rules and regulations meant that the couple meant that only limited information could be disclosed - which led to them being inundated with conspiracy theories and scam accusations.
London flat for rent for £1,400 a month with bed tucked away in kitchen cupboard
Recalling the harassment they faced, Jennifer, now 51, told LancsLive: "What happened with this bonkers journey was that we got an awful lot of flak. We got death threats and people who had entered and didn't win became obsessed and said it was a scam. It brought out every kind of individual in society and there was even a hate group set up. But we have learned from it."
Regulations mean Jennifer can only share photos of the inside of the new home (Lancs Live/MEN MEDIA)
The couple hope that the new raffle will 'help get someone on the property ladder' (Lancs Live/MEN MEDIA)A whopping 452,000 tickets were sold the raffle, each costing just £2, though legal fees alone cost the couple £110,000. The raffle was won by a man from Birmingham who sold the house but kept the Ferrari, and used the money to pay for his two daughters' weddings.
Jennifer owns several rented properties, and has now started selling them off when they become vacant. Her and David are also currently in the process of their own move to a newly-built home elsewhere in Lancashire.
And despite the abuse they faced in the past, the couple are now going back to the raffle market. This time, entrants could win a three-bedroom mews house in Skelmersdale, which Jennifer personally renovated. Jennifer said: "I put it up for sale but two people whose bids were accepted failed to get a mortgage. I felt so sorry for one of the buyers and it made me think 'if I was 30 like him I wouldn't have been able to get on the property ladder either' so I started to think 'what can I do?'."
Since Jennifer launched her latest raffle just a few days ago she has already sold almost 10,000 tickets, which are priced at just £1 each. Raffall's terms and conditions state that a minimum of 145,000 tickets need to be sold for the main prize to be given. If fewer than 145,000 tickets are sold, the winner will receive a cash payment amounting to 50 per cent of the total ticket revenue generated for this competition.
If the host achieves their minimum ticket target and fails to provide the prize, the winner will receive a share of the compensation amounting to 75% of the ticket revenue. All compensation payments are guaranteed, and paid directly by Raffall. Regulations restrict Jennifer to only publishing internal pictures of the house, as well as its specific location
While the first raffle did mean Jennifer faced some bother from strangers, it also brought her something far greater than simply selling a property. Through the process Jennifer a person who recommended a cardiologist, which helped lead to her condition becoming stable. She added: "I just hope we can use this to help someone else. Things are tough at the moment and it would be nice to think that we can get someone on the property ladder."
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