Leave the housing market behind sell your house via a raffle

With the current financial climate, the thoughts of RC Air Swimmers buying a new house, renewing your home insurance, paying stamp duty, and renting a removals company in 2009 are understandably far from the thoughts of any current homeowner. However, the Express and Echo has reported that a couple from South Devon are trying to sell their house via a seemingly unconventional method. If they are successful, could they kick-start a new trend among house-sellers?Steven and Caroline Sicklemore are trying to sell their four-bedroom house, in the picturesque coastal town of Dawlish, remote controlled flying shark via a raffle. By logging on to summerbreezecompetition.co.uk, prospective buyers can look at photos of the property and the surrounding area that includes beautiful beaches and the famous black swans. Visitors can also see the terms of conditions of the competition and even purchase a ticket online at the bargain price of 25 (of which 3.6 percent goes to the Force cancer charity).The idea is certainly innovative, so could we see many following their footsteps? Interestingly, another couple from Devon have already planned the same Air Swimmers but progress has been halted as the Gambling Commission look into the legal issues (the GC have already passed the Sicklemores idea as being fine).Aside from the incentive of a portion of the ticket price going to charity, there are further bonuses being offered to the lucky ticket-holder, such as: payment of stamp duty, legal fees, moving expense contributions, and the first year of the council tax paid. It seems that the Sicklemores have tried to make the prize as tempting as possible, but if the ticket is split between two (after all, it is a four-bedroom house) then a ticket price is only m not really sure why they would have any doubts that all tickets would sell before the closing date of 24th April 2009.That said, only nine tickets have been sold in just over a week. Could it be that people are so hard up that they are unwilling to even part with 25 for charity and the chance of winning a quiet lovely house in a great location (one of the best in Devon in my opinion)? Or is it that classic English trait of not trusting something that sounds too good to be true that is shining through? I suppose, by April, we shall see whether the idea was such a good one.