Vendor sells house for more than asking price via house raffle

A farmhouse in Shropshire has become one of the few house raffle success stories in recent times after the vendor, who had tried to sell it via two estate agents, attracted over 340,000 entries to his raffle and raised £550,000. Vendor Michael Chatha, who originally put the property on the market for £545,000 eight months ago but received no offers on it, had been attempting to sell the property after he and his wife separated after 17 years living at the property. “I had the farmhouse on the market with two different agents, one of them a very well-known reputable brand, each for three months and although I had viewings, there were no offers,” he says. “So I thought I could do a better job of marketing it myself and seven days after the competition started, we had brought in £550,000.” TV appearance His house raffle was featured in a BBC article and Chatha was invited into the BBC1 TV Breakfast programme sofa last month, highlighting his attempts to sell the property; publicity which many other house raffle competitions don’t receive. The winner of the 300-year-old farmhouse, which has four bedrooms and a separate annexe, is somewhat stunned 23-year-old admin…