Simon Williams won the bid for his five-bedroom Omaze home last year. (Photo: Omaze / SWNS)
There is no such prize draw Now you’re done.
For just £10, hopeful homeowners can enter and win. house worth millions of dollarsWithout stamp duty, mortgage Or you may have to pay attorney’s fees. Even better, those who want to increase their chances of winning can buy a bundle of entries for between £25 and £150. It’s definitely a win-win situation, right?
But now a father-of-one has cashed in on his dream home of six months on Omaze, selling it for £2million – and claims his personal highlight was the lawnmower.
Simon Williams, 42, bought the five-bedroom home. devon We hosted a family reunion there last year. christmas and EasterThis was something we could not accommodate at our previous property.
Simon won Omaz Cottage last year. (Photo: Omaze / SWNS)
But after months of enjoying his million pound fortune and £100,000 in winnings, he decided to put it on the market. He saved £2 million and used it to buy his dream home in Sussex, where he previously lived.
What happened to the lawn mower after it was sold? As part of the move, he sold it to a friend but was given joint control. He was ‘allowed to watch it on weekends’.
‘Winning Omaze House was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It’s still hard for me to understand that all this actually happened to me!’ Simon, an aircraft engineer from Kent, thinks:
‘I’m a father so obviously the birth of my children was the best day of my life, but winning at home was a very close second!’
The day he won, he ‘laughed, cried and stared into the abyss’, describing the whole experience as completely ‘surreal’.
Simon says acquiring property changed his life. (Photo: Omaze / SWNS)
He loved spending quality time with his family, including his daughters, aged 12 and 14, at the ‘breathtaking’ property, a converted holiday home he previously lived in in a three-bedroom house in Sussex for 15 years.
In fact, when the Omaze team called Simon to tell him he had won the prize, he barely answered because he didn’t recognize the number and thought it was a spam call.
‘It felt great to have this space and be able to invite everyone for the first time, even in such a wonderful home! “We made some very special memories there,” he added.
‘I love Devon and with the money I made, keeping the house was an option, but because of living in Sussex I decided to sell and save the cash.’
Simon had no problems selling the house and notes that the money it made ‘made a real difference’ in securing ‘the future of the family’.
The sale helped secure the daughters’ future. (Photo: Omaze / SWNS)
‘I guess I can say it was the best £25 I’ve ever spent!’ He talks about the Omaze lottery.
Simon says he hasn’t changed after receiving the award. He still wears the same jeans he wore before, but shares that the family has enjoyed ‘a few fun vacations and a new car’ since then.
‘I had to buy one anyway, but I could afford to upgrade after the sale, so I bought a Tesla. It has made my commute more comfortable,’ he adds.
He jokes that he still works but ‘builds more cars now than I did before I won’, adding: ‘The win will allow me to think about retirement a little sooner, but I’m in no rush to start playing golf just yet. !’
With the money from the house sale, Simon bought a five-bedroom house in Sussex, very close to where he lived.
But Devon will always have a special place in his heart as it was where he spent his holidays as a child. He continues to take his children there on vacation.
Simon hosted the family’s Christmas and Easter celebrations at his home. (Photo: Omaze / SWNS)
Million pound mistake?
Simon is not alone. for Many Omaze winnersThe obvious answer is to sell after you win.
In October 2023, only four of the 14 luxury properties sold are still occupied.
One of the properties in question It was a seven-bedroom Cornish mansion owned by a 74-year-old widower. Buy June Smith for £25 in May 2023.
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Just three months later, she put her waterfront home up for sale to help her children and grandchildren with the ‘next chapter of their lives’.
Simon’s favorite thing was the lawnmower. (Photo caption: Omaze / SWNS)
The estate agent estimated the house could fetch between £5,000 and £7,000 a month as a long-term let, or up to £14,000 a week as a peak season holiday rental, but June persisted with her decision to sell.
She said she would like to ‘enjoy at least one family holiday’ in the house before selling it, a sentiment shared by 70-year-old Marilyn Pratt, who won a £2.9million Fulham home through a prize fund in April 2021 I did it. draw.
She sold the house eight months later for £2.8 million. Like June, she wanted to use the money to support her daughter and grandchildren. And she still lives in her two-bedroom home with her husband, David. Both have lived for the past 40 years.
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