‘We raffled our house - and we couldn’t be happier for the family who won it!’
A DAD-OF-FOUR who took a huge risk by raffling off his four-bed house for £1 a ticket said he could not be happier for the winners after a “fairytale ending”.
Dale Tate decided to sell his detached house in Ossett, near Wakefield, through a raffle with 400,000 tickets up for grabs at a £1 each.
The 36-year-old had struggled to find a buyer during the coronavirus pandemic, so he opted to take the plunge in the hope of building up enough cash to move his family to Brisbane, Australia.
Now, less than a month after the raffle began, the winner has been drawn with a family from nearby Tingley in West Yorkshire set to move into the property.
Dale said: “The family is the most deserving family. We met them yesterday and they have been through some pretty hard times as two of their boys have got health issues and we really couldn’t have asked for a nicer family for this to happen to.
“They live on a council estate and don’t own their own home so this really is just a fairytale ending.”
The family-of-five, comprising Claire Reynolds and Ben Binks, both 34, and their three children, spent £100 on tickets in a bid to bag the home. Dale said he is amazed it went to a couple who live less than a 15-minute drive away.
“It could have been anybody but it was a family who live in Tingley which was just complete pot luck as we had zero influence,” he said.
“We had messages from people in America, Canada, Australia and the draw was done fairly and they are deserving winners.”
Although everything panned out for Mr Tate, he admits that he and his wife Kathy have not slept over the past 30 days.
“It was a massive risk for us because people don’t realise what goes on in the background,” said Dale. “We haven’t slept for a month and we have been hounded by people saying this is fraud and that the house will go to my uncle or brother.
“We got it 24/7 but we had to shut people down and reply to everyone. It was only when people read our comments they realised that we were real people.
“We had to put so much work into getting the raffle into Facebook groups and we only had a limited amount of time to sell it so we had to put our own savings into Facebook advertising and that was a massive risk.”
Fortunately for the family, it was one that paid off and now Dale is planning to buy a campervan so he can take his boys, who are two, five, seven and nine, around the UK before they embark on a new adventure Down Under.
He added: “Kathy is from Brisbane so we’re going to settle there and take it easy and live a more laidback life and spend more time with the kids.”
The most amount of money spent by one person was £580 but Dale thinks everyone who took part has helped create a better life for two families.
He said: “I want to thank everyone who participated.
“They may not have won but they all contributed to two families have a good life so they will get some good karma from that.”